Svarog
by Is Og Ild
Summary: The human race is an ever evolving species. Every day, hundreds of thousands of babies are born and with each of them, genetics rolls the dice and takes a chance for something weird to pop out. Call them what you will. Freaks. Super heroes. Mutants. Whatever they are, they're real, and they're out there. I would know. I'm one of them. [Modern Mutant School AU, Axel First Person]
1. Prologue Part 1: Cars and Curfews

_**Author's Note:** FYI, my protagonist ain't shy about swearing, so this is __**Rated T**_ _for language._

 _Also_ _ **Quick Disclaimer**_ _here and now for the whole story: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or any Disney franchises._

 _Thank you so much for reading and welcome to the insanity!_

* * *

 **SVAROG**

* * *

 _Passage 1 of a Prologue in 6 Parts_

 _~*~_  
 _Cars and Curfews_  
 _~*~_

"What are you doing?"

Crap. Busted.

I didn't move a muscle. Maybe if I stayed low, the person would think that they had just been seeing things and would leave.

Who was even out here at this hour besides me? Bet it was one of those damn prefects. Like Saïx. Man, he used to be cool, but had become such a teacher's pet lately.

But that wasn't who it was, the voice had been female. Maybe it was that chick with the hair longer than the frigging Great Wall of China. Not even joking. What was her name again… Rapunzel? She seemed nice enough, but she was _way_ too eager to please the faculty just because her mother was on the school board. What was the deal with the hair anyway? If she was trying to get into Guinness Book of World Records, she had the next person beat by at least a mile. Guess she wasn't the type to quit while she was ahead.

"I can see you, you know. You're breaking curfew."

Fuck, I'd almost forgot that person was out there. So much for hiding.

I straightened up to sit normally in the driver's seat of the car and looked out the open window on the passenger side, already having come up with seventeen different excuses to get me out of the situation. I opened my mouth preparing to spin one epic yarn, but came up short when I saw who it was.

She was pretty, with eyes like glaciers of the frozen north and long, platinum blonde hair done up into a loose braid that fell forward over one shoulder. She was wearing some pale blue, off-the-shoulder sweater with a pair of jeans. She stood there, boots sinking deep into the snow-blanketed parking lot, her arms folded under her chest as she peered into the vehicle, expression unreadable.

Shit, it wasn't a prefect. It was just the new girl.

How had she even gotten out here? The gates were locked up tight for the evening and the walls surrounding the place were huge. Even I had had to jump so I could pull myself up and over them, and I was tall enough to give the Empire State Building a run for its munny. How a petite thing like her had managed to perform the same feat was beyond me.

Oh well, didn't matter. This whole thing just got easier.

Smirking, I said, "Correction. _I'm_ going on a approved, late night supply run. _You're_ breaking curfew."

She arched an eyebrow at me. "Approved? By who?"

"Headmaster Yen Sid himself. Old boy's got a bad case of the munchies. Figured I'd do him a solid."

Her head tipped to one side. "...this isn't your car."

"If it wasn't, would I be able to do this?" I reached under the steering wheel once more and started fiddling with the wires that I'd left exposed. From where she stood, I knew she couldn't see what my hands were doing. A second later, the car engine roared to life. I gave her a smug grin.

Boom, baby.

Her brow furrowed and she said nothing.

Now I had two options here. I could put the car into gear, drive off and be on my merry, leaving her behind to possibly go snitch on me. Or I could take her along for the ride.

Lord knew the girl could probably use it. She'd been at the school for a few days now and she hadn't spoken a word to anyone. Not one single person. Just stayed quiet and kept to herself. These were literally the first words I, or anyone else on the whole campus as far as I was aware, had ever heard out of her mouth. I had been beginning to wonder if it was a religious thing.

"Tell you what," I said, discreetly shoving the wires back up into the steering column and snapping the cover back into place with one hand, scratching the tip of my nose with the other. "I'm gonna help you out. Even though you're out after curfew, I'll keep this little incident between us if you come with me. I'm going to need a hand carrying stuff anyway."

She frowned. "The snow has to be at least a foot deep. How do you plan to drive through that?"

"Heh." My hands grew hot for a few seconds as they rested on the steering wheel. And no, it wasn't one of those fancy heated ones. "What snow?"

Her head turned and she blinked at the sight of what was now a clear path through the snow leading out of the parking lot. She blinked a second time.

No, girl, you're not crazy. That wasn't there a minute ago.

She looked at me again and I gave her a crooked half-grin. She hesitated briefly, then came to a decision. The passenger side car door slammed shut as she took a seat beside me and buckled herself in.

Atta girl.

I shifted gears, put the pedal to the metal and sped off into the night.

Confession time. This car I was driving? Not mine. Shocker, I know, seeing as I had hotwired the thing. But hey, maybe I had just lost my keys, you don't know. Eh, who am I kidding? The thing was a Ferrari. That's right, a freaking _Ferrari_. I never could have afforded this masterpiece of automotive art, not in a million years. Hell, I could barely afford the Chuck Taylors I was wearing on my own two feet.

Don't get the wrong idea though, I wasn't stealing it. Not technically. I mean, I was going to bring it back, so it didn't count, right? Right. I was just borrowing it… without asking…

Bah, the owner probably wouldn't even miss it anyway. The car had just shown up out of the blue one day in the campus parking lot. I'm guessing one of the instructors had bought it on impulse in a pathetic attempt to recapture their squandered youth or something. My munny was on Professor Xehanort. That old fart reeked of midlife crisis. Anyway, wherever the car had come from, there it had appeared and there it had stayed. It was _always_ there. No one ever showed up to take it out for a spin or anything. It just sat there, gathering dust.

Then the snowstorm had started up. Now I know what you're thinking. A freak snowstorm in the middle of July? That shit's weird, man. However, weird stuff happens at this school all the time. You get used to it. But I'll get to that later.

So anyway, the blizzard hit and we weren't allowed to go outside for days. Let me tell you, I was going stir crazy, being all cooped up indoors. Then tonight, not fifteen minutes ago in fact, I had looked out the window to discover that the storm had let up. Know what else I saw? The Ferrari. Just sitting there, all sleek and shiny and new, calling my name. _Axel,_ it had said. _Come drive me, Axel._

And who was I to deny the wishes of the magical, talking car?

It was a crime really just leaving it out there to rust anyway. So really, I was the hero in all of this. One day they'll immortalize my heroic deeds in song, I'm sure.

Anyway, that's how I came to be on the wide open road at a quarter to midnight, racing along at about 103 (and climbing) miles-per-hour in a stolen - I mean, _borrowed_ car, with a newly acquired Girl Friday at my side.

My Girl Friday wasn't much of a talker. She didn't even look at me, nor did she seem alarmed at the speed we were going. She just propped her elbow against the armrest, chin in hand, and stared out of the window on her side as the wind whipped her braid around.

Wonder what she was zoning out about.

I switched on the radio to fill the silence and started flipping through the stations. Eventually I landed on one that was playing "Love Runs Out" by OneRepublic. I left it there and leaned back in my seat. A second later, she reached a hand forward and cranked up the volume.

At least she had good taste in music.

Eyeing her hand as she withdrew it back into her lap, I asked, "So what's up with the gloves?"

She seemed taken aback by the question for a split second before reassuming her mask of indifference. She shrugged. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but it's cold enough for Hell to freeze over out there. I don't know about you, but I'm a fan of not losing my fingers to frostbite."

The chick had a bit of bite to her, I'd give her that. Plus, she made a valid point. I was wearing a pair of gloves myself - fingerless though, mind you, because cool guys don't worry about a little thing like frostbitten digits - and had a red and black striped scarf wrapped around my neck to fight off the chill. However, there was a hole in her logic. "Fair enough. But you forget the snow only started up three days ago. You've been wearing those things since you showed up here _four_ days ago, when it was still all sunny beach weather."

She stared hard at the dashboard. "...you noticed that?"

"What can I say, I'm observant. It's almost like you knew a blizzard was coming. So, what, are you psychic?"

You're probably thinking that was just me making a halfassed attempt at a joke. And if almost anyone else had been asking that question pretty much anywhere else, you would have been right. But I wasn't anyone else and we weren't anywhere else. I was me and we were here, at Yen Sid's Institute for the Gifted.

Well... not _here_ here. The institute wasn't in the Ferrari, that'd just be silly. When I say here, I mean back there. You know, where we had just driven away from, the-

Bah, you know what I meant.

See, the human race is an ever evolving species. Every day, hundreds of thousands of babies are born and with each of them, genetics rolls the dice and takes a chance for something weird to pop out. And I mean _weird_. For example, there are some people that can actually see using echolocation. Like a damn dolphin. Or there's this one dude who can eat literally anything. Glass, rubber, TV sets, bicycles… he even ate a whole effing airplane once. That shit's real, google it.

And those are just the D-listers. Now we get to the real heavy weights. The ones that can do all the stuff you thought only possible in movies and comic books. We're talking flying, invisibility, invulnerability, elemental manipulation, telekinesis, the list goes on and on. Call them what you will. Freaks. Super heroes. Mutants. Whatever they are, they're real, and they're out there.

I would know. I'm one of them.

And I can already hear you asking the obvious question: _So then, Axel, what's your power?_ Well, if you've been paying attention, I've already given you a hint. Missed it? Don't worry, there will be more.

So this is where the Institute for the Gifted comes in. Get a load of that moniker. Sounds like we're all a bunch of mental cases. Maybe we are, but no one wants to go opening that can of worms. Anyway, this old dude called Yen Sid founded the school.

By the way, what kind of name is Yen Sid? Is it a first and last name? Or is it all supposed to be all one thing, like Cher or The Artist Formerly Known As Prince? Who knows.

In any case, he's supposedly one of us. Not sure what he can do, I've never seen him unleash, but I hear the old boy's got some mad juice and you seriously do not want to get on his bad side. Apparently he started the school as some sort of safe haven for us superfreaks. It's supposed to be a place where you can go to meet others like yourself, to understand your powers, to learn how to harness and control them so you can use them to make the world a better place.

At least, that's what the brochures would have you believe. Me, I have a different theory. I mean, come on. Here they are, rounding us all up in one spot, isolated out in the boonies, enforcing all these rules and regulations on us… like curfew. Fucking _curfew_. Who needs that bullshit? Really, I suspect it's all just a ploy by the government to lock us up together and hope we take each other out or nuke us from orbit or, I don't know, _something_ before we realize just a handful of us could bring the world to its knees.

Or maybe I'm just an angry youth who has trouble with authority and likes spouting off conspiracy theories. In any case, now you see why when I asked her that question, I wasn't joking. It was a serious question looking for a serious answer.

When she didn't respond, I pressed, "Well? Are you?"

She shrugged and continued to keep her eyes focused straight ahead. "Maybe I just watch the weather channel."

I snorted. "Bullshit. First of all, only lame-os with no life watch the weather channel. And second of all, the weather channel didn't predict this storm coming."

She finally broke off her staring contest she was having with the dashboard to look at me. "How would you know?"

"Because I'm a lame-o with no life who watches the weather channel."

One corner of her mouth twitched upward. Ah ha, so there _was_ a sense of humor lurking in there somewhere beneath her ice cold exterior. "Really? Wow, you need to get out more."

I scratched a spot behind my left ear. "Whatever, are you psychic or not?"

"I'm not psychic," she answered with a shake of her head.

"Then what's the deal with the gloves?"

"What's the deal with your face?" she shot back.

I grinned. "Like I can help how stunningly gorgeous I am."

"I was referring to the tats and hair."

"Oh."

Note she did not refute the validity of my stunningly gorgeous statement.

With a smirk, I ran my fingers through my long, unruly red spikes that scoffed in the very face of gravity. "It's natural. And these?" I pointed to the upside-down teardrop shape under my right eye. There was a matching one on my left cheek. "These are cuz I shot two men in Reno just to watch them die."

Her eyelids drooped and she looked remarkably unimpressed with me.

An involuntary snerk escaped me. "Wow, that face. Okay, fine, I'll give you a real answer… if you tell me the story behind the handwear."

Her eyes returned to watching out her window. "I'm good, thanks."

With a harrumph, I mumbled, "Well, aren't we a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Well, the offer stands if you change your mind."

Not another word passed between us until ten minutes later when we finally hit our destination, a little place known as Traverse Town.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Thanks again for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!_ ** _  
_**


	2. Prologue Part 2: Pop-Tarts and Poisons

_Passage 2 of a Prologue in 6 Parts_

 _~*~_  
 _Pop-Tarts and Poisons_  
 _~*~_

Traverse Town was a bloated little hamlet trying to pass itself off for the big city. Every night, it gussied itself up like a two-bit trollop with its tacky neon lights and flashing signs. It was the single, solitary shining beacon of civilization in the otherwise miserable, lifeless black hole that was the fifty mile radius around our school, so small wonder that I made a beeline for it. And what, you may be asking, was my first stop once I rolled my sweet ride into town with its bustling nightlife?

7-Eleven.

I know, I know. Stealing a Ferrari to go to a crappy little convenience store is kind of like using a jackhammer to squash an ant. But worry not, my friends, the night was still young.

As I parked the car and exited, I was immediately struck by a wall of heat. Mind you, it was nighttime, so I wasn't exactly melting, but it definitely felt like summer. What made it odd was the winter wonderland I had left behind not fifteen miles ago. Looking around now, there was not so much as a snowflake in sight.

"Huh," I grunted as I took off my gloves and scarf and tossed them back into the car. "It's like the campus has its own personal flurry hanging out on top of it."

My Girl Friday got out and closed the door behind her. It did not escape my notice that her gloves remained on. She looked briefly up at the now clear night sky, then shrugged. "Global warming?" she deadpanned.

I snorted and just shook my head before we made our way inside.

"Here, catch," I said as I grabbed something off one of the shelves and chucked it over my shoulder. I heard her fumble with the bag for a second before she presumably had it secure in hand.

"...the Headmaster likes Cheetos?" she asked. I swear I could hear the raised eyebrow in her voice. Don't ask me how that was even possible.

"Oh yeah, the old dude loves that shit, like a cat to catnip. Can't get enough of it," I replied distractedly as I continued perusing the aisles.

"...Flamin' Hot Cheetos?" she pressed skeptically.

"His favorite. Incoming." I tossed a few more snacks her direction. Soon her arms were overflowing with a vast assortment of pre-processed goodies. Hey, this wasn't a free ride. Girl Friday had to earn her keep.

As I balanced a box of Pop-Tarts on top of the pile, she asked, "Should a man his age even be eating this kind of stuff?"

"Who knows. But do you wanna be the one tell him no?"

Her eyes darted to the left.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." It's like I said, Yen Sid was one scary dude. The new girl hadn't been here for a full week yet and even she knew that.

I studied my horde of junk food with a critical eye, then asked her, "You want anything? I'm buying." She blinked up at me. "You know you want to." Her head turned to inspect the shelves for a moment. "There ya go," I nodded in approval as she grabbed a bag while doing her best not to drop everything else I had her carrying. I eyeballed the package of MallowPuffs she had retrieved as we made our way over to the cashier. "Marshmallow fan, I take it?"

"Nope. Can't stand the stuff."

I quirked an eyebrow at her, then chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Lookit you, trying to sass me."

With a tiny scowl, she ducked out of my reach and dumped all the items on the counter next to the cash register. The clerk mechanically began ringing everything up as he stared off into space and I idly wondered if I had an invasion-of-the-body-snatchers situation on my hands. No one looks _that_ brain dead unless they're a pod person. Just saying.

I added a pack of smokes to my purchase, paid the man after he'd bagged everything, then grabbed my things and left. Outside, I leaned back against the front of the Ferrari and patted the spot beside me. She plopped down on the hood and brought her feet up to sit cross-legged. I handed her the MallowPuffs before digging around in the bag again and pulling out the Cheetos, ripping them open, and shoving a handful into my mouth. Ah, that's the stuff.

She frowned at me, resting her unopened pack of candy in her lap. "Aren't those supposed to be for the Headmaster?"

I swallowed. "Well yeah, but gotta test for poison."

"Poison?" she snorted.

"Dude's made a lot of enemies in his longass lifetime. This wouldn't be the first time assassins made an attempt on his life."

Her lips pursed to one side. "...but you just bought those."

"So?" I asked, tossing one into the air and catching it in my mouth.

"So, there hasn't been enough time to poison them. Unless you're suggesting that someone poisoned everything in this one particular store on this one particular night on the off chance the Headmaster got a random, late night craving for Cheetos and Pop-Tarts."

"Were they wrong?" I challenged with a smirk. "These assassins are serious business. They don't mess around, Snow."

Her shoulders tensed slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Got to call you something. Since I don't know your name," I flicked the tip of her braid, "figured going by your hair color would be good enough. People call me Red all the time."

"Oh." Her posture relaxed again. Or maybe it was just my imagination. "And do you like that?"

I pulled a face. "Actually, no. It gets old real fast. Everyone thinks they're so clever when they do it too, when really it's like, congratulations, you just confirmed you're not colorblind. Here's your gold star."

Great. Now I was a hypocrite. And she'd managed to pull that off in five words. At least she didn't seem to mind the newly minted nickname, or if she did, she didn't say so or give me her real name. Instead, she simply rewarded my comment with a small snort and picked up her MallowPuffs once more. She attempted to open them, but seemed to be running into some difficulty with her gloves. No friction.

Now, were I a true gentleman, I would have offered to open them for her. And normally, I am a true gentleman. I'm gallant as fuck. But I suppressed my inner white knight momentarily. What can I say, I was curious. I wanted to see if-

Yup. She removed the gloves in order to achieve optimum bag tearing performance. I politely waited long enough for her to do what she set out to do, but the instant that bag was unsealed, I took her bare hand in mine and brought it up close to my face for scrutiny.

To say her fingers were like ice would have been an understatement. They were more like liquid nitrogen as she wrenched them out of my hand while making a strangled noise in her throat. Face pale and eyes wide, she snapped, "The hell?"

My fingers curled, seeking warmth from my palm, as I gave her a shrug. "Huh. Your hands are normal."

Her eyes darted between my face and my hand a couple times. "Well, duh. What'd you expect?"

"I dunno. Claws, fur, scales… something to explain the deal behind those infernal gloves." I really wanted to know, damn it! At this point, I was more curious about that little bit of intrigue than I was about whatever her power was. True, the two might not be mutually exclusive, but whether they were or not, I'd been at the school for long enough that super powers were old hat by now. Human quirks? Now those were far more interesting.

"Well, sorry to disappoint," she mumbled. She was now just staring at my hand, brow furrowed, and said nothing further. Well, guess that conversation was closed. The mystery of the gloves would remain just that: a mystery. For now.

Her eyes were still fixated on my hand. Not sure what about it had her so enamored, but I decided to take advantage of her distraction by reaching into her bag and pulling out a MallowPuff. That broke her trance and she blinked up at me as I popped it into my mouth and shrugged, saying, "Testing for poison." I chewed for a couple seconds thoughtfully. "Hmm. Not sure. Best to be thorough." I reached in for another one.

Rolling her eyes, she smacked my shoulder with her glove. Somehow I got the feeling she didn't quite believe me. Not sure why, when clearly everything I said to her up to this point was completely honest and one hundred percent legit. Where's the trust, man?

As she donned her gloves again and dug into her candy, I rolled up the half-empty bag of Cheetos and put it back in with the other snacks. Then I retrieved my pack of death sticks and slid one out.

"Checking for poison?" she asked dryly.

I smirked around my unlit cigarette. "Nah. These things'll kill ya already. Why bother?"

I snapped my fingers and the tip flared up orange.

And there it is, kiddos. Hint numero dos. Any guess as to what my ability was yet? And no, it wasn't that I snap my fingers and awesome shit just happens. Though that would have been wicked cool.

If Snow was surprised by my little cigarette trick, she took it in stride. Guess that's just a byproduct of living in the world we do. Things like this that would look like sorcery to your average muggle just doesn't wow you anymore. She did however watch me with some interest out of the corner of her eye as I brought the cigarette to my lips, inhaling deeply before releasing a slow stream of smoke into the air.

"...can I have a drag?"

The cigarette stopped midway to my mouth as I blinked a couple times at her request. That... I was not expecting. She had seemed like such a straight arrow. Coming to terms with the fact that I just might not know everything, I nodded and offered it to her.

She took it gingerly in hand and just stared at if for a second, head tipped slightly to the left. Then she realized I was watching her as I waited and she blushed faintly before hastily putting the cig to her lips and breathing in. Immediately, she all but exploded into a fit of coughs and wheezes, almost toppling off the car. I spluttered at the sight before roaring with laughter.

"That's _disgusting_ ," she choked out in a strangled voice, holding it at arm's length now as if it were a rabid monkey trying to bite off her nose.

"Sorry, they were fresh out of the ones that taste like cotton candy and liquorice," I grinned, taking it back from her. Guess my first instinct about her had been right after all. Now I could rest easy having verified that I actually did, in fact, know everything.

I took another hit, then tapped some ash away as I waited for her to recover. After a full minute of her hacking and gagging, she finally settled down. "So," I began and she looked at me, eyes watering and face red from coughing. "Breaking curfew. Trying your first cigarette." Grand theft auto... but she didn't know that. "What made you decide to turn to the dark side tonight?"

She stared down at her feet, fingers toying with the MallowPuffs bag. After a while, she shrugged. "My parents... no matter what I do, they've always seen me as some kind of monster. I guess... I'm tired of trying to prove them wrong. Tired of trying to fight it."

Okay. Clearly this chick was going through something, and there were several ways to approach this. Some people would ask her if she wanted to talk about it. Others would give her a hug and let her cry it out. As for me?

I scoffed and flicked her in the forehead.

Hey, I never claimed to be Mister Sensitivity.

She clasped a hand to her abused brow and looked at me with wide eyes. "Don't be a cliché," I grumbled. "You're better than that."

She frowned, rubbing the sore spot before lowering her hand once more. A crease had formed between her eyebrows as she said flatly, "You don't know me."

"I know enough to know that you," I jabbed my index finger into her collar bone, "are better than that." With a firm nod, I took one more pull from my cigarette before putting it out as I let the smoke trickle out through my nostrils. I tucked the half-finished cigarette behind my ear, picked up my bag of junk food and made my way back towards the driver's side of the Ferarri. "Let's go, Snow."

She stared at me blankly until I got in and started up the car, then she stood. "Back to the Institute?" she asked as she took a seat beside me in the vehicle.

"Sure," I smirked, putting the car into reverse. "Sooner or later."

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Thank you so much to **Arisa Kiryuu** and **Amarxlen** for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!  
_


	3. Prologue Part 3: Cops and Confessions

_Passage 3 of a Prologue in 6 Parts_

 _~*~_  
 _Cops and Confessions_  
 _~*~_

"License and registration, please."

Okay. Maybe in retrospect, racing through town in a stolen vehicle at over twice the speed limit in an area packed full of pedestrians had not been the brightest idea. No one was hurt, mind you, but how was I supposed to know a cop would be lying in wait for the first hapless driver to pass by at two or three (or forty) measly miles per hour faster than was permitted by law? Fucking speed traps.

Snow observed in silence as I reached for my wallet. I had told her not to worry and to let me do all the talking as I had pulled over to the side of the road not a minute before. Actually, she seemed surprisingly unconcerned, given our current predicament. Girl knew how to keep her cool.

Then again, she didn't know she was an accessory to the theft of this lovely luxury motor vehicle she was currently riding in style in.

I handed the cop my license and graced him with a million-watt smile. "Listen, I-"

"Registration?" he repeated gruffly as he began to jot something down on his pad.

I scratched the back of my neck. "Well, you see-"

"Here it is," Snow piped up. I whipped my head around and watched as she pulled the registration paper out of the glove box. Seeing as how that little piece of paper would clearly show that this was not my Ferrari - something I'm sure Officer Chuckles over here was already seriously doubting just by taking one look at me - I tried to furtively shake my head at her. Not taking the hint, she leaned over me to hand him the registration.

I had to resist the urge to facepalm.

He narrowed his eyes at the paper. "And would you be… Elsa Fryse, Miss?"

Not good. Not good at all. It was time to take charge of situation. "She-"

"Yes, that's me. Here's my ID." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a card that she passed along to the officer as well.

Woah. She had a fake ID that just so happened to match the registration for the car I stole? What are the odds?

Wait a minute…

Oh.

 _Oh._

Crap.

The policeman scribbled down a few more things. "You kids realize you were going 83 miles per hour in a 35 zone?"

Oh snap, I'd actually been doing closer to fifty over the speed limit? Go me!

Snow - or rather, Elsa, apparently - spoke up again. "That's actually my fault, officer," she smiled sheepishly. It was the first time I had actually seen a full blown, honest-to-god smile on the girl's face. It was kind of cute. "You see, we were at his place and I was helping him study. He's failing math."

 _Excuse_ me? Do I look like the kind of guy who flunks math? Shit, I know math. One plus one equals two. See? Suck it.

"Anyway, we lost track of time and my parents expected me home thirty minutes ago. So he was just speeding because he wanted to get me back before I got into too much trouble."

Hey, that story wasn't half bad. Who knew she had it in her?

The cop shifted his eyes from her to me, then back. "Care to explain why he's the one driving the vehicle?"

"I just don't like driving at this time of night," she responded without missing a beat. Then she looked down and nervously twisted her braid. "Gosh, I hope my dad won't be too mad at me for being so late…"

Damn, was her lower lip quivering? Her performance had me in awe.

The cop was silent for a few seconds, then sighed, ripped the ticket out of his pad and tore it in half. "I'll let you off with a warning this time." He glared down at me, "Just mind the speed limit, son. Her father would rather you get her home safely."

Pardon me while I pick my jaw up off the ground. "Y-yes, sir… Thank you, sir!" I managed to blurt out.

"And Miss," he looked at her again. "I'd suggest you find better company to keep."

Ouch. I'd be offended, but I couldn't really blame him. I looked like such a hoodlum sitting next to her. Never mind that I knew the truth about her now. I'm on to you, Little Miss Puppet Master.

"Good night, officer," she responded with a sweet, cherubic grin.

Oh, she was good.

He tipped his hat to us and walked back towards his patrol car. I waited for him to get in and drive away. Then I arched an eyebrow at her. "So… you knew this wasn't my car?"

She inspected her nails. "Yup."

"Because it's your car?"

"Yup."

"...this... is _your_ car," I reiterated.

"Um… yes."

"That you knew I was stealing."

She glanced at me, her head tilting to one side. "Is it really stealing if I get in the car with you and let you take it?"

My face scrunched up. "Huh. Point." I drummed my fingers along the steering wheel. "So you knew I had zero permission for any of this?"

"You mean, did I know that the Headmaster didn't give you the okay to steal my car so you could pick up some late night snacks? I had a hunch."

"Hey," I raised a finger, "we established that I didn't technically steal it."

One corner of her lips twitched upward. "Didn't steal it, no. Thought you were stealing it? Yes."

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut with a tiny scowl. "Okay, point again." I rubbed the nape of my neck. "For the record, I was gonna bring it back."

"Oh really? How thoughtful."

"I know, right?"

She snorted, then crossed her arms. "Why were you stealing my car anyway?"

"Why did you get in a car that you knew was being stolen?" I countered.

"I asked you first."

"Fine," I grunted and started ticking off my fingers one by one. "A, I was bored. B, it's a Ferrari. C, it asked me to." I winced. Way to sound crazy, dude. "...D, forget I mentioned C. Okay, now you."

She shrugged. "Same reason I smoked my first cigarette." Crap, I should've been able to figure that one out on my own. "Why did you lie to me about what you were doing?"

"Is it really lying if you knew I was lying?"

"I'm going to say yes."

"Damn." I wasn't good at this game. "Well… say this wasn't your car. Would you have still gotten in if I had told you the truth?"

She mulled over that for a second. "...probably." Oh- _ho_ , really now? Intriguing. "Why did you ask me to come with you?"

"Because you wanted me to ask you." That had actually been a total shot in the dark, but it seemed I'd hit it right on the nose since she looked taken aback by my answer. "What's the deal with the gloves?"

She recovered quickly, narrowing her eyes at me. "Still not answering that."

"Oh, come on!"

"Nope."

I rapped my fist against the steering wheel. It had been worth a shot. "Okay, fine. Then why haven't you been driving this car?"

She blinked. "What makes you think I haven't been driving it?"

"Because until I liberated it tonight, it hadn't budged an inch from its parking spot since it showed up."

She cast her eyes upward at the ceiling and sighed. "...it was supposed to be a peace offering from my parents. One I didn't accept."

I cocked my head to one side with a frown. "Okay... what did they do?"

"They sent me to this school."

"And that's... bad?" Sure, I wasn't exactly going to be singing this place's praises any time soon, but if someone was giving me a free car in exchange, I wasn't about to turn my nose up at that.

Instead of giving me an answer, she asked, "How did you come to be enrolled?"

My brow furrowed. What did that have to do with anything? I shrugged. "I was a ward of the state. Yen Sid picked me up because no one else would take me."

Her head snapped around in my direction. Ugh, that look. I was very familiar with that look. It was the kind of look you would give to a puppy with cancer that had just found out Santa Claus wasn't real. "That's… I'm sorry."

"Why? Was it your fault I was an evil little hellion that no one wanted?" She tucked in her lower lip and didn't respond. "Yeah, I didn't think so." I scratched a spot behind my ear. "What about you? How did you end up here? What'd your parents do?"

She shrugged. "Had me restrained and sedated before shipping me off like some criminal."

My eyebrows shot up my forehead. "Shit, seriously? That's brutal." My therapist says in times like these I should find some sort of common ground in order to relate. What common grounds did we share? Shitty parents. "If it makes you feel any better, my dad's in prison."

She quirked an eyebrow at me. "Why on earth would that make me feel better?"

It's possible my therapist is full of crap. "Not sure, but just thought I'd throw that out there." So much for that angle. "So, your folks gave you the Ferrari to try to smooth things over, huh?"

Her head tipped forward. "They had it waiting for me when I arrived here, hoping I would simply forgive and forget. You know, bygones and all." She snorted. "How shallow do they think I am?"

"Huh. Who does that?" Pause. "No, seriously, who does that and where do I sign up? I want to get a free car every time someone's a douchebag to me."

She gave me a sour half-grin. "It's not as awesome as it sounds."

"Well, if you don't want the Ferrari, can I have it?"

"Sure."

I blinked at her. "I was joking."

"I wasn't."

Okay, not to look a gift Ferrari in the mouth, but I seriously doubted I was now the proud new owner of this certified pre-owned vehicle worth more than my pathetic existence. Flashy, expensive sports cars don't just fall into your lap. Shit like that just doesn't happen, you know? Tilting my head to one side, I asked, "You know nothing's forcing you to stay at the school, right? You can leave at any time, no one's gonna stop you."

She hugged her knees up to her chest and nodded. "I know."

"So then why didn't you just say fuck your folks, hop in this car and drive back home?"

Her eyes were blank as she stared out the windshield. "It's hard returning where you know you're not wanted. Besides, they'd only find a way to send me back."

"Okay… forget home. You could have gone somewhere else. _Anywhere_ else."

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes. "...why haven't you left the institute?"

My shoulders stiffened. I scratched my cheek then shrugged. "Nowhere else to be, I guess," I grumbled.

She simply nodded and said nothing more.

I pursed my lips for a moment, then brightened. "Well, I can think of somewhere to be right now." I looked at her. "That is, unless you want to go back."

"Nah, I'm not ready to head back yet," she shook her head.

I smirked. Somehow, I got the feeling she'd say that. "Alright, then let's boogie." Reaching under the steering wheel to hotwire the car again, I said, "Guess I don't have to be so sneaky about this anymore."

"Alright, two things. You weren't all that sneaky about it in the first place. And," she reached up, flipped down the sun visor and retrieved from there a set of keys that she then tossed over to me, "try these, genius. They'll probably be faster."

I caught the keys with a frown. "You mean they were up there the whole time?"

"Yup," she grinned. "I thought you said you were observant."

"Shaddup," I grumbled, jamming the keys in the ignition and starting up the car. Somehow, it just wasn't as satisfying.

As I pressed down on the gas, she said, "One more question."

"Shoot."

"What do I call you? I mean, you know my name now, but I still don't know yours."

I quirked an eyebrow. Had I really gotten this far without introducing myself? My my, where were my manners? "Axel," I smirked before tapping a finger to my temple. "Got it memorized?" She just stared at me. "What?"

"What was that, some sort of catchphrase? It was seriously the lamest thing I've ever heard."

"Psh. You don't know what you're talking about."

She shook her head. "Whatever, Alex."

"Axel."

A smirk tugged at her lips as she turned to look out the window. "Yeah yeah, got it, Axton."

I released a heavy sigh.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Special thanks to __**Amarxlen**_ _and **Arisa Kiryuu** for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!_


	4. Prologue Part 4: Bouncers and Blizzards

_Passage 4 of a Prologue in 6 Parts_

 _~*~_  
 _Bouncers and Blizzards_  
 _~*~_

"The fuck?" I hissed as a searing cold suddenly pierced a point on my neck. I swatted it away and watched a small bit of white flutter to the ground. I narrowed my eyes at it for a second, then glanced up.

The stars were gone, swallowed up by a dark wall of clouds barricading off the night sky. When had those shown up? Come to think of it, it had cooled down quite a bit too. Maybe I shouldn't have left my gloves and scarf back in the car. I stared up for a few seconds more before spotting it: another speck of white floating down. I reached out a hand to catch it so I could take a closer look.

A snowflake. A goddamn freaking snowflake. Come on, Mother Nature, work with me here. Do you even know the meaning of the word Summer?

"What, is the blizzard following us now?" I grumbled.

Elsa-

I can't. I just can't. I'm not calling her that. I don't care if it's her name, it sounds like some sort of frigging French antiperspirant. We're going back to Snow, alright? Alright.

Snow studied the flake of ice in my palm before shifting her gaze upward to the overcast sky. Then she started to say something.

I held up a finger, stopping her before the first syllable was uttered. "If the next thing out of your mouth includes either the words 'global' or 'warming,' I swear to god…"

She pressed her lips together and looked thoughtful for a moment. Then smirked and offered, "El Niño?"

I rolled my eyes and slipped the snowflake down the back of her sweater. She punched my shoulder and I snorted as she shook it out of the fabric.

We were almost to our destination. It was a popular place, making getting a parking spot nearby a zero probability, so I had left the Ferrari a couple blocks back and we were currently hoofing it the rest of the way. And where, one might wonder, was our destination? That is a fantastic question, I'm so glad you asked. We were going to a fun little place known as the Gizmo Shoppe.

Now, the name Gizmo Shoppe was sort of misleading. It did in fact have gizmos, but they were more for show, not for sale. What was for sale was alcohol, and lots of it. The place was kind of like a miniature theme park crammed into a nightclub. It had games, rides, shows, people in costumes. I shit you not, it was kind of like much smaller version of Disney World except instead of Adventure Land, they had Booze Land, and instead of Tomorrow Land, they had… Even More Booze Land.

We turned down a covered alleyway. The brick walls and arched ceiling were lit up by old-fashioned looking streetlamps with real candles in them. Lining the walls on either side of us were doors leading into stores and other businesses that had closed up for the night long ago. The only signs of life were the lights and flashes of color coming from the far end of the alley. Yup, that'd be the Gizmo Shoppe.

After listening to our footsteps echo around the tunnel for a moment, I glanced at Snow out of the corner of my eye. "Psychometry?"

She blinked at me. "What?"

"The ability to touch an object, like a watch or a wallet, and see where it's been or where it's gonna be," I explained. "Can you do that? Do the visions overwhelm you? Is that why you wear the gloves?"

Yeah, I was still going on about those stupid gloves. So sue me.

The corners of her eyes crinkled and she shook her head. "No, that's not why I wear the gloves."

I crossed my arms and gave a low hum as we walked. "Mysophobia?"

"Nope."

"Amathophobia?"

"Nu-uh."

I licked the corner of my lips. "Hypochondriac?"

"No," she sighed.

I snapped my fingers. "I got it. You're a notorious and world renowned master thief. The gloves are so you don't leave fingerprints behind at the scene of the crime."

She gasped, "Oh my god, yes! That's it!"

"Really?"

"Nope," she deadpanned.

I frowned. "Not cool."

Her head tipped to one side. "Actually, it is."

"I'm sorry?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

Snow gave me a small grin. "You could say my reason for wearing these gloves is… very cool."

My brow furrowed. "Huh." I was left to ponder that one as we had arrived at the entrance to the Gizmo Shoppe.

The cobbled walkway beneath our feet shuddered and pulsed with the thundering music coming from within. The large doorway before us was adorned with neon lights, whirring gears, fluctuating springs and more. Strobe lights all colors of the rainbow twinkled and blurred by from within the opening like dancing will o' wisps, trying to lure in any unwary travelers who happened to wander by. And I was only too happy to be lured. I began to walk inside.

I was stopped short by a firm, meaty hand the size of a tennis racket on my chest.

It belonged to a man standing beside the entrance. A very large man with very large muscles. His black hair was cut into a low fade and a thick beard covered his scowling face. He was all sorts of blinged out with rings on his fingers, an earring in one ear, and a necklace around his throat with a bullet hanging from it. He had three scars on his left cheek and was sporting a skull tattoo on one bicep.

Oh yeah. He looked like the real friendly sort. A total teddy bear.

"And just where do you think your skinny ass is going?" he growled out in a deep voice.

My face was blank as I shifted my gaze from him to the door and back. "I think my skinny ass is going into this fine establishment you have here."

He gave a derisive snort. "Not on my watch," he said, giving me a light shove that sent me stumbling back several steps. "Beat it, kid. Go home, your mama's probably worried sick about you."

I caught Snow's eye. She quirked an eyebrow and gave me a tiny, almost imperceptible smirk. I then frowned at my new pal, Mr. Teddy Bear.

Oh no he didn't. This aggression would not stand. Not in front of my new lady friend, not when my manly dignity was on the line.

I cleared my throat, squared my shoulders, and looked down my nose as much as I could at a man who had at least two inches on me. "My good sir, is that anyway to treat an upstanding, respectable, tax-paying citizen who's legally of age to enter your little club?"

I have no idea how I managed to keep a straight face through that total load of crap.

He huffed out a curt chuckle. "Well, well. Turns out the little boy's actually a big man. Tch. Just how old are you anyway? Have your balls even dropped yet, junior?"

Woah now, crude much? There was a lady present.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I'll have you know I am twenty-two, thank you very much."

Minus three years.

...and thirteen months.

The bouncer eyed me up and down with a bored look. "Kid, if you're twenty-two, then I'm the Queen of England."

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, your Majesty."

His eyelids drooped, his frown deepened, and somewhere crickets chirped.

Well, I thought I was funny.

His eyes shifted to look past me and he said, "You can go on in, Miss. This doesn't concern you."

Who was he talking to? I turned. It couldn't possibly be-

It was. He had been talking to Snow, who looked just as surprised as I felt. She blinked a couple times, then pointed a finger at herself in question.

"Her?" I scoffed at him. "You act like I'm some kind of toddler, but you think _she's_ old enough to go into a bar?"

He rolled his eyes, then asked, "How old are you, Miss?"

She hesitated a second, pursing her lips to one side. Then she drew her shoulders back, lifted her chin and replied, "Thirty-seven."

Mr. Teddy Bear squinted at her, before his face broke out into a grin. "Good enough for me. Go right on ahead."

" _What?!_ " I snapped. He was messing with me. He had to be, right? Unless… unless it was just because she was a girl. But then, I thought bouncers only did that for hot chicks. Not to say that Snow was an eyesore or anything. Actually, come to think of it, she was sort of a looker… I guess…

Aw, who am I kidding? The girl was a total knock out.

But still, double standards.

In response to my outburst, he just shrugged. "The lady says she's thirty-seven. Who am I to question it?"

I fixed him with a hard stare. "A bouncer doing your job, that's who." He just shrugged his shoulders at me again. I pinched the bridge of my nose. "You can't seriously tell me you believe she's in her late thirties."

Snow let out a dramatic gasp as a hand flew to her chest. "Are you suggesting I look _older_?"

She was trying to sass me again. "Shush, you old hag." Hey, I give as good as I get. She stuck her tongue out at me. I looked back at Mr. Teddy Bear. "You see that there? Does that look like a thirty-seven year old to you?"

"It's important to stay young at heart," he nodded.

"Oi," I groaned. So done. "Where's Yuffie? She knows me, she'll let me in."

The bouncer crossed the pair of tree trunks he called arms over his chest and his scowl returned. Great. Just dandy. "Yuffie's not here. Barret is. And Barret's not gonna let you in. Barret don't like you."

Barret was a tool. Barret also needed to stop referring to himself in the third person.

I shook my head and sighed, "Come on, man, work with me here. I mean, you never even asked to see my ID or anything."

He glared at me for a silent second, then held out his hand. "May I see your ID, sir?"

"Finally, now we're getting somewhere." I fished a fake ID claiming me to be of legal drinking age out of my back pocket and handed it to him. He took it and held it up close to his face for scrutiny. Then he looked at me. I grinned. He nodded.

Then he popped the card into his mouth, chewed it up and spat out the pieces in a spray. Like confetti. I blinked.

Barret was insane. Also, shit, what did he have, jaws of steel? It's a good thing that wasn't my only fake ID.

"Entry denied," Barret ground out through his teeth.

Mr. Teddy Bear got a promotion at that point. He was now Mr. Grizzly Bear. And any idiot knows you don't fuck with grizzlies.

"Alright. Got it, big guy." I threw up my hands in surrender and backed away slowly. "Let's go, Snow. We've got better places to be anyway."

"You go ahead. I'll catch up," she told me as she began to walk into the Gizmo Shoppe.

"Oh no, you don't." I dragged her away by the braid. She huffed softly and swatted my hand away, but followed me without any further protests.

Interlocking my fingers behind my head, I grumbled, "Who wanted to go to that shitty old nightclub anyway?"

A smirk tugged at her lips. "I believe you did not more than five minutes ago, Allen."

I winced. Apparently that name joke wasn't getting old anytime soon. I decided to let it slide for now.

"Nah," I shook my head. "I just thought I'd grace them with my glorious presence. I was doing them a favor, really."

"How charitable of you."

"I know, I'm a regular Mother Teresa." I reached behind my ear and retrieved my half finished cigarette, sliding it in between my teeth. With a snap of my fingers, it was lit once again.

I know, I know, smoking is an icky habit. And it doesn't take a psychic to know exactly what each and everyone of you are thinking. _Why do you do that to yourself, Axel? Do you want to die of lung cancer? Don't you know you're digging yourself into an early grave? Clean up your act and get your shit together._

First of all, the sentiment is appreciated, truly. But no one asked you, so - and I mean this in the nicest way possible - shut your trap.

Second of all, the way genetics got me wired, honestly, I'm not even sure smoking can hurt me. Hell, I even taste like smoke, and that was long before I picked up the habit. Just ask any of my exes. So I figure, why fight it?

Oh my, I do believe that was another clue. So how about it, viewers at home? Have you figured out what my mutant ability is yet? Hope so, because that's the last one I'm giving you. Come on, I've be handing them out like candy, you should have figured this shit out by now. It's not like I've been particularly vague or clever with any my hints up to this point either. You shouldn't need me to spell it out for you, where would be the fun in that?

I took a deep, slow drag, holding it in as I offered the cigarette to Snow.

She eyed the butt with a wry grin. "Because that worked out so well the last time."

Releasing the smoke, I shrugged. "If at first you don't succeed?"

She snorted. "No thanks. I've learned my lesson."

"Good for you," I smirked, gripping the cigarette with my teeth once more as I slapped her on the back.

She chuckled, "Thanks, Alf."

My eyes narrowed. "Now that was just uncalled for."

We left the shelter of the covered alleyway and I stopped dead in my tracks. "The hell?" I murmured, brow furrowed as I took in our surroundings. The street, the parked cars, everything had been covered in a fresh, thin layer of crisp snow.

Okay, seriously, Mother Nature must be drunk or something. I mean, how long were we in there? Two or three minutes, five max? And this is what we return to? It's a good thing I couldn't get cold. I could be standing at the North Pole in nothing but my birthday suit and not even so much as shiver.

Oopsie. Was that another hint? And after I said I was done. Oh well, consider that one a freebie.

You're probably also wondering about the scarf and gloves I had been wearing, since I didn't technically need them. Hey, dudes like to accessorize too, ya know.

"Okay, this is seriously starting to piss me off," I muttered, gnawing on my cigarette as I glared up at the heavens.

"Sorry."

I looked down at Snow with a raised eyebrow. "Huh?"

She didn't meet my eyes. "About…" she trailed off, biting her lower lip, then made a sort of weak gesture towards the blankets of white around us.

I frowned. "Why would you-" Then it clicked. "You did this. That's your power. You can manipulate the weather."

"Well, no… I mean, kind of, I guess… but not really…"

Gee, thanks for clearing that up.

She started walking in the direction of where we'd left the car. I caught up in two long strides. Wringing her hands together, she began again, "Ice. And snow. That's what I can control. Though, maybe _control_ is not the right word, as it more just sort of… happens around me. And it's always been small, harmless stuff, like some frost or icicles or a few snowflakes. But… a blizzard… this is the first time I've ever…" she trailed off with a grimace.

"Huh." I crossed my arms. "So then, looks like I was spot on with my nickname for you. Funny... I'm not psychic. At least, I don't think I am." Drawing in on my cigarette thoughtfully, I pondered that for a second before snapping my fingers. "Think of a number between one and five."

She stared at me blankly.

I pressed a finger to my temple and scrunched up my face. Because if you're trying to read minds and aren't poking your temple or face scrunching, you're doing it wrong. "...three."

Rolling her eyes with a snort, she said, "No."

"If you'd let me finish, I was saying three is _not_ the number you were thinking of, because that number is five." She took in a breath to respond, but I went on hastily, "Kidding. I meant two… no, one." Cut me some slack here. When's the last time you tried parting the mystical veils of the unknown to peer into and divine the inner workings of someone else's mind? This shit ain't easy. She shook her head. "Okay, got it this time, this is the real deal: four."

A grin pulled at one corner of her mouth. "Nope."

I blinked. Did I miss a number? I counted out my fingers. "What is it then?"

"Blue."

"...hate to break it to you, but blue's not a number." And here her cover story had been she was tutoring me in math. Pfft.

"I know," she shrugged. "But that wouldn't have mattered to a true psychic."

I pursed my lips. "...well played. Welp, guess that answers that."

She ran her fingers over her lips, trying to hide a small smile.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"This is the first time you've ever caused a blizzard, right? I'm guessing something happened to trigger it. So what was it?"

Her face fell and she hugged herself. "It... My sister, she... There was an accident. I was careless with my powers and she was hurt."

"Shit. She okay?"

She glared down at her feet as she trudged along. "I put her in a coma." Her features softened. "Her skin... it was so cold... like ice..."

I rubbed the nape of my neck, flicking my spent cigarette into the cool powder that coat the ground. "And that's why your folks shipped you off here?"

Snow nodded with a wince. "It happened right after we rushed her to the hospital. While I was in the waiting room."

Ouch. Certainly didn't waste any time, did they? We walked in silence for a bit before I asked, "So what happened tonight?" She furrowed her brow at me. "The snow's been coming down the past few days like Jack Frost on crack. Then tonight all of sudden, it just stops." I shrugged, shoving my hands into my pockets. "Something happened."

"...my parents called. It's the first time we've spoken since I arrived here. Anna… my sister, she's come out of her coma. They told me she's doing fine." A relieved smile ghosted across her lips as she continued softly, "I suppose that's when the blizzard let up." The smile vanished almost immediately. "I asked if I could come home, but they refused. I guess… I don't really blame them. Maybe I really am a monster."

I narrowed my eyes at her before giving her braid a swift tug. "Didn't I tell you to knock that shit off?" I scowled down at her hands and realization dawned on me. "...so that's why you wear those gloves. You're afraid you'll hurt someone again. You think those will help you keep your power in check."

She blinked at me, then crossed her arms, trying to hide the items in question under her elbows. She muttered, "Are you sure you're not psychic?"

I smirked. I love it when I'm right. "Nah. I'm just freakishly intuitive." Shaking my head, I added, "I hope you know you're being ridiculous. Those gloves aren't doing squat."

"How would you know?"

"Your handy work speaks for itself," I spread my arms wide, indicating the newly minted frozen tundra around us. Then without warning, I came to an abrupt halt and stared down at the curb with a frown, before glancing around. "Huh. Well, that's not what you want."

She stopped walking a couple steps after and looked back at me. "What?"

"See this spot here?" I gestured to the empty space of road next to me between two parked cars.

Snow looked where I pointed, then met my gaze once more with one eyebrow quirked. "Yeah, what about it?"

"That's where we left the Ferrari."

"Oh," she replied flatly, eyeing it once more, face blank. "Where is it?"

"Good question."

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Special thanks to __**Amarxlen**_ _, **Arisa Kiryuu,** and **SoraKairiRikuNamine** for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!  
_


	5. Prologue Part 5: Is og Ild

_Passage 5 of a Prologue in 6 Parts_

 _~*~_  
 _Is og Ild_  
 _~*~_

One has to wonder how many times one automobile can get stolen in a single night. True, whether I had actually stolen the Ferrari had been up for debate earlier tonight. But for the purposes of our statistical analysis here, I think it counts. So in this case, that number was two. And while two is not some grand, impressive number, it is two more times than you would like your car to be stolen in one night - in the space of a couple of hours, no less.

"Damn it," Snow hissed.

"Yeah, getting your car swiped sucks."

"What?" She frowned at me, then shook her head. "Oh, no, that's not it. I'm annoyed because my MallowPuffs were still in the back seat."

Her MallowPuffs? Her sweet ride worth close to half a mill was missing, and she was worried about a few measly chocolate-coated marshm-

Oh crap. All of my snacks had been in there too. Now that was just uncool. The bond between a man and his Cheetos is sacred.

Snow turned and began to walk off in, as far as I could tell, a seemingly random direction. I arched an eyebrow at her. "Where are you going?"

She stopped, looking at me over her shoulder. "To get my car back." I quite distinctly heard a "duh" at the end of that sentence. She didn't say it, but she really didn't need to.

"Why? You didn't seem too attached to the thing."

"Because I'm even less attached to the idea of making the entire way back to the academy on foot."

I scratched a spot behind my ear. "Hmph. Fair enough. But how do you even plan on finding it? It's not like the thief left a note."

Now she fully turned back around to face me. There was a slight tilt to her head and a half-smirk on her lips. "I thought you were supposed to be observant."

She pointed to the spot where the Ferrari had once been. My brow furrowed as I looked at the empty space once more. What'd I look like, some kind of bloodhound that could track the damn thing by scent? Then I saw it. Tire tracks in the thin layer of snow covering the road. It seemed no other cars had driven by recently, for they were the only tracks to be found. They left the parking space and went towards the stoplight not a few yards away from us before turning off the main road and down a side street.

"Oh," was all I said at first. Then I looked up from the prints back at her. She looked a touch smug. "Shaddup. Let's go," I grumbled, hurrying to follow the trail.

She snorted as she fell in step beside me. "Whatever you say, Axe."

I didn't correct her. At least it was only one letter off this time. She was getting closer.

You probably think we were being a couple of idiots. Here we were, just a pair of punkass kids going after the big bad car thief. Hell, could be more than one thief. And we had no idea if or what kind of weapons they had on them. But I'm going to tell you right now, didn't really matter what they were packing. It wouldn't hold a candle to what we had up our sleeves, so they could bring it on. We could take it, whatever they had, be it knives, guns, or a grenade launcher.

...okay, maybe a grenade launcher would have been a bit tricky. But I'm sure we still could have handled it.

Anyway, we were lucky in that we didn't have far to go. Twenty minutes and several blocks later brought us into a rougher part of the town that was less frequented. The bandit had made no attempt whatsoever to conceal the car tracks, which turned onto a dimly lit driveway. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who failed to notice the impressions the tires had left in the snow.

The property we walked onto was majorly sketch. There was a large structure that looked like some sort of auto garage. Its walls were covered in chipped paint and graffiti. The tire tracks went right up to that building and under a huge rolling door that was currently shut tight and secured with a padlock. Off to the right was a smaller, rundown building that may have been an office. There were lights coming out of its windows and some sound - a radio or a TV, maybe. If anyone was home, that seemed to be where they were, as the garage was dark and silent.

Snow took a step forward, but I stopped her by holding up a hand. Glancing at her, I pressed a finger to my lips. She blinked at me, then released a sigh through her nose, crossed her arms and said nothing. I then crouched low to the ground.

Stealth mode activated.

There was a stack of crates a few yards into the lot, off to the right. My eyes swept the area for any sentries or snipers, then I dove towards the boxes, tucking myself into a roll and coming up in a squat behind them, using them for cover.

The Double-O-Seven theme may have been playing in my head.

Pressing my back against the crates, I scanned the area once more to make sure I hadn't been detected. Then I waved Snow over. She snorted, rolled her eyes, then just walked casually onto the lot and towards the garage.

And zero fucks were given.

Rolling around in the snow sucked anyways. I shook the bits of cold of out my hair and jogged over to join her at the massive door. She had taken hold of the padlock and was turning it over in her fingers as she quietly studied it.

Both our heads snapped up as a sudden laugh came from inside the office off to the right, shattering the silence. It was loud and braying. Something was apparently hilarious. Luckily, it didn't seem to have anything to do with us.

Snow returned her attention to the lock. She let go of it, but only long enough to to slip one of her gloves off before wrapping her now bare hand around it once more. Almost instantly, frost formed on the metal beneath her fingertips and started spreading. When she released the lock from her grasp a few seconds later, it was completely entombed in solid, crystallized ice.

I gripped the frozen padlock, giving it a twist and a hard yank. The thing crumbled like feta cheese.

Spiffy.

She covered her hand once more and we slid open the heavy door with as little sound as possible. There was no reaction from the office, so we must have been doing something right.

I'll give you one guess as to what we found when we stepped inside the garage. If that guess was your basic illegal chop shop... ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! The place was gigantic inside, with several cars in various stages of being disassembled, one of which was on a lift about six feet in the air. There was no one else in here besides us. Parts were everywhere, from hanging on the walls and in shelves, to being littered all over the floor. Apparently this wasn't a very organized operation. Maybe we had shown up during their ten minute break?

Another laugh could be heard, a little more distant now that we were inside. Same guy. Jesus, it was obnoxious. Sounded like a hyena.

Directly in front of us were the only two cars that seemed to be yet untouched. One of them was a gorgeous, hot red Porsche. The other was Snow's Ferrari.

The windows had been left rolled down on her car and I leaned in through the one on the driver's side. Reaching into the back seat, I retrieved my bag of snacks with a huge grin on my face. It was quickly replaced with a scowl however when I started sorting through it contents and realized something was missing. "Those assholes jacked my Cheetos!"

Sacrilege! Did the sanctity of somebody else's cheese-flavored, cornmeal puffs mean nothing to these heathens?

Ignoring me, Snow put her car in neutral then gestured for me to give her a hand. Grumbling under my breath, I put the bag back on the seat and helped her push the car out of the garage, making as little noise as possible so as not to draw attention to ourselves.

I'd like to take this moment to point out that this was now the third time this vehicle had been stolen tonight, even though it was its owner that was now doing the stealing.

We got several yards away from the building and stopped just short of the road. I straightened up and looked back over my shoulder, surveying the lot once again. There was an enormous, cylindrical tank hooked up with pipes next to the garage, right between it and the nearby office. I rubbed my chin as I eyed it.

Now, I know I said no more hints about my mutant ability. But I think we both know that that was a bold face lie. I already sneakily threw in another one not just a few minutes ago, did you catch it? Don't worry if you didn't, it was subtle. And I'm about to give you another one.

I whispered to Snow, "You might want to take those gloves off."

Here it comes.

She blinked at me, then looked down at her hands. "Why?"

Pay real close attention as it's also gonna be hella subtle.

"Reasons." I pointed, "Hey, does that tank look combustible to you?"

"What?"

I threw my hand up, aimed at the tank, and a gout of roaring flames burst forth from my fingertips. It lit up the night as it streaked through the air in a blazing blur before crashing into the tank. It instantly exploded with a loud _boom_ that tore through the silence. The ground shuddered beneath our feet as a wave of heat hit us.

Snow yelped and ducked behind the car. Peeking over it with wide eyes, she asked, "You control _fire?!_ "

I smirked. "Well, shucks, how'd you ever guess?"

Her eyes darted from the small inferno back to me. Her eyelids drooped as she straightened up. "Did you just set the whole place on fire because they took your bag of Cheetos?"

"Psh. Do you really believe I would be so petty?"

Yes. Hell yes. Mess with my Cheetos and that means war.

The impact of the explosion had torn a small hole in the wall of the garage and half the large building was merrily roasting away. The office seemed to be for the most part intact, though now looking a little worse for wear, windows shattered, covered in soot with burning rubble around it and on top of its roof.

There were shouts and colorful expletives coming from within the small structure. Its door banged open and three figures came stumbling out, coughing and choking on the billowing smoke. One was a tough looking chick with dreadlocks, the other two were a pair of bald dudes that weren't going to be winning beauty pageants anytime soon. They hadn't noticed us yet. Guess they were too busy freaking out over their lack of oxygen. Pfft, pansies.

Snow had moved to stand beside me. Glancing down at her hands out of the corner of my eyes, I asked, "Why are you still wearing those?"

Her eyes shifted from me to her gloves once more. Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she slowly peeled off the first one. By this point, Baldie Numero Uno had recovered and spotted us. With a snarl, he charged in our direction. Snow hastily freed her other hand, then she looked uncertainly at me. I grinned and nodded towards our new and quickly approaching amigo. Hesitantly, she raised her bare hands before her, aiming at the guy. Her fingers trembled almost imperceptibly.

Come on, girl, you got this. I have faith.

Abruptly she grit her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut, and turned her head away. Her arms angled down and a blast of cool, blue haze shot out of her hands. In the blink of an eye, it struck the ground beneath Baldie's feet, turning the layer of snow there into a glossy smooth surface of ice. With a surprised grunt, Baldie slipped and fell flat on his face.

"Alright!" I punched a fist into the air, then held up my hand in her direction. "High-five." She clasped her hands to her chest and just blinked at me.

Oh, right. No touchie.

Back towards the office, Baldie Numero Dos was still having a hard time breathing, but it no longer had to do with a lungful of smoke. He was clutching his sides, cackling like a madman at the sight of his fellow car thief faceplanting into the ground. Ugh, that laugh again. Guess that'd make him the hyena.

Baldie the First had managed to raise himself up onto his hands and knees, shaking his head, probably trying to clear the stars that were spinning around it. If he thought it was weird that there was a big patch of ice on the ground where there hadn't been a second ago, he was too pissed to care. He sneered an ugly set of teeth at us as his hand shot down to his hip.

"Nu uh," I admonished, flicking my wrist. By the time his hand touched the gun he was reaching for, it was too hot to handle. A soft hiss could be heard as his skin made contact with the metal that was glowing a dull red now. He yelped and flung the weapon away and it skid several feet across the ice. I grinned, "Don't you know those things are dangerous?"

The hyena was still roaring with laughter. Hard to see, but pretty sure he had tears in his eyes. The Amazonian lady with dreads, who had finally managed to stop coughing, smacked his shiny head. "Can it, Ed! You think this is funny?!" she bellowed, gesturing at the burning garage. Ed shook his head rapidly, but his giggle fit continued. With an aggravated sigh, Dreads punched him hard in the shoulder before sprinting towards us as well, breaking to the left to avoid the frozen slip-n-slide that Baldie had fallen victim to.

Snow narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin a centimeter. Hands steadier now, she threw them forward. A frigid gust laced with snow and ice hit Dreads like a Mack truck, knocking her off her feet and onto her butt.

Grunting from the impact, Dreads' eyes flew open wide as she stared up at the two of us. You could practically see the gears begin to turn inside her head. She knew something wasn't right. Meanwhile, her business associates seemed to remain utterly clueless as Ed was now doubled over with his laughter while Baldie was still scrambling across the ice on all fours. Somehow, I got the feeling she was the brains of the operation. I almost felt sorry for her.

Almost.

She leapt to her feet and despite the glare she was shooting our way, it was pretty clear she was no longer all that eager to tangle with us. She took a couple steps back.

"Where do you think you're going?" I snorted, then snapped my fingers.

With a puff of smoke and small, resounding bang, a miniature explosion went off barely inches from Dreads' face. She flinched and spun on her heel to run, but then a second one popped directly in front of her again, bringing her to a screeching halt. Then a third and a fourth tiny explosion followed. Then dozens, hundreds of them, all going off around her head like an endless string of firecrackers on the Fourth of July.

Now I wasn't just doing it to fuck with her. Not saying that's something I wouldn't do. Just saying that wasn't what I was doing at that moment. And I wasn't simply trying to distract her and keep her in one spot, though that definitely was a plus.

Here's the thing about my pretty little light show: it wasn't just pretty. It was burning up oxygen.

Wonder which one would figure it out first. Dreads? Or her lungs?

My munny was on lungs.

A string of muffled obscenities from Baldie drew our attention back down to him. He had managed to wriggle and slip his way across the slick ice closer to his firearm and was now reaching for it. Snow gasped and reflexively sliced her hand up through the air. A small column of ice shot up from the frozen ground directly beneath Baldie's chin and slammed squarely into his jaw with an audible _thunk!_ The dude was knocked out cold.

Pun intended. Heh.

From the sound of it, Dreads wasn't too far behind. She let out a heavy, startled wheeze as she finally realized how hard it was getting to breath. She kept trying to move, but my mini firework display blocked her path at every turn. She was clearly panicking, which was only making the situation worse for her. Her legs wobbling, she looked in our direction once more.

I smirked and gave her a two finger salute.

With that, her knees buckled beneath her and she hit the floor, passed out. I made a dismissive gesture and the rapid explosions came to an abrupt stop. Jogging over to Dreads, I kneeled down next to her and pressed my fingertips to her throat. There was a pulse and she was breathing now. She'd be fine.

Something was missing. A split second later I realized it was that annoying hyena laugh. I looked over at Ed to discover he was now white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf. I guess he didn't find the current predicament he was in so funny anymore. Strange, because I think spontaneously suckerpunching ice and bite-size explosions from nowhere are hilarious. Jeez, the guy looked just about ready to piss himself. I almost took pity on him.

Then I saw it. Crumpled in his left fist, an orange and red plastic bag with Chester Cheetah printed on the front of it, rocking his shades and punkass grin.

I was on my feet faster than you can say 'twisty cheesy obesity puffs' and bull rushing straight at the guy. He let out a squeak and tried to make a break for it.

Fun fact: all that hand waving and wrist flicking us superfreaks do to activate our powers? Totally unnecessary. Newbies commonly do it as a sort of focus to help them get used to wielding their newfound abilities. It's what TV and the movies teach us because those director-types in charge don't know any better. It was obvious with all the hand gestures Snow used that throwing her ice around was unfamiliar territory for her.

So you might be wondering why I had been doing it too. Well, sometimes it just feels badass to snap your fingers and have a nearby car explode. What can I say, I'm a sucker for theatrics. Other times, it goes a long way in just making sure a spectator of those theatrics doesn't realize that they're suddenly the leading lady in your encore performance.

So now you're probably thinking, gee, thanks for the crash course on Superfreaks 101, but what does that have to do with anything? Basically, that was my roundabout way of saying that I had melted the thick soles of Ed's boots to the ground. From the second he had ran outside, I'd been doing it without ever pointing in his direction, without ever looking at him, without him so much as even realizing it was happening.

Thus, when I said he tried to make a break for it, that's all he could do: _try_. But he quickly discovered it was kind of hard to get anywhere when your feet are practically superglued to the floor.

Confused, he looked down at his boots, then up at me. He gulped, then hastily kneeled down and began unzipping his shoes to free himself. He managed to loosen them both, but by the time he was standing up again, I'd closed the distance.

"You owe me a bag of Cheetos, motherfucker!" I roared, roundhouse kicking him to the face. He went flying out of his boots and kissed the asphalt with a _whump!_ I stood over him, fists ignited with fire, silently daring him to get back up again.

Cheetos are serious business, yo.

Ed stayed down on the ground, limp and drooling. It was a good bet he'd joined his friends off in Dreamland. I watched his prone form for a few more seconds to be on the safe side, then relaxed and extinguished my fists. I crouched down next to him and began digging around in his pockets. I heard the tip-tap of Snow's feet approaching as she walked through the puddle of melted snow that remained around where Ed has previously stood.

"...are you stealing his wallet?"

I retrieved Ed's billfold and held it up. "I want a new bag of Cheetos. His treat." Opening it up, I took all the munny I found inside. "Besides, dude stole your car, so the morality of the situation isn't exactly weighing down my conscience."

She was silent for a moment as she stared down at me, expression blank. Then, "Take his watch too. It looks expensive."

"Ooo, good call."

Yoink.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Curious about this chapter's title? I wanted it to be something along the lines of "Fire and Ice", but if you'll notice the previous chapter titles, the words (excluding "and") are alliterative. I couldn't come up with anything that sounded quite right ("Fire and Freeze"? No. "Ice and Ignite?" Certainly not!), so I went with Is og Ild (alliterative! Excluding "og", which means "and") which is __Norwegian for_ _"Ice and Fire". It also happens to be my username!_

 _Special thanks to_ _ **SoraKairiRikuNamine** and __**Amarxlen**_ _for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!  
_


	6. Prologue Part 6: Institutes and Irises

_Passage 6 of a Prologue in 6 Parts_

 _~*~_  
 _Institutes and Irises_  
 _~*~_

Searching the lot, it wasn't hard finding straps to tie up the three creeps with. And with the huge bonfire I had made out of the garage, the fire department would most likely be showing up any minute. They'd probably take one look at the contents of the garage (burned or not) and be able to piece together what these thugs had been up to. Still, not one to leave things to chance, I made a sign using a loose piece of cardboard I'd found and propped it on top of Ed's unconscious body. Written on it in soot was the message, "I steal cars and Cheetos." I borrowed Ed's phone to snap a photo of him and his sign, then texted it to the police before dropping the phone on the ground next to him.

Ah, criminal shaming. Good stuff.

As we were about to split, I took one last look at the small office. Something was missing. Next to the roasting garage, it looked so dark, so quiet, so neglected, so… not on fire. With a smirk and a snap of the fingers, the small structure burst into flames as well.

"Really?" I heard Snow deadpan beside me. I looked down at her and just shrugged.

Let's be real here. Whatever divine being up in the high cosmos decided it was a good idea to grant fire powers to a little miscreant like myself must have been on crack or something.

We got in Snow's car and made our getaway just as the faint sounds of sirens could be heard off in the distance. Having had enough hijinks and shenanigans for one night, we drove back to the institute. It was just shy of three o'clock in the morning by the time we were pulling in. I gathered my things from the backseat before climbing out and tossing the keys to Snow.

The gates were obviously still locked, so I released a slow breath before launching myself up the wall, my fingers barely catching the ledge. With a grunt, I hoisted my body up on top of it then kneeled and turned, ready to help Snow up. Instead I was greeted by the sight of her staring down at me with a quirked eyebrow. She was on a ledge of her own next to the wall - or rather, more like a pillar, one made entirely of ice.

I blinked up at her before straightening up to my full height. "Huh. So that's how you got over the wall in the first place. I'd been wondering."

She simply nodded as she joined me on my ledge. As soon as she stepped off it, the frozen column that had been supporting her shrank back down and disappeared into the snow-covered ground. With another subtle twitch of her hand, snowflakes began to twirl and dance on the other side of the wall. They compressed into each other and solidified, forming a staircase made of solid ice leading down onto the campus grounds. Snow delicately made her way down the steps. When she reached the bottom, she looked back at me and waited.

I shook my head. "Think I'll pass. I'd probably slip and crack open my skull or something." Those stairs _were_ made of ice after all. I hopped down off the wall, landing in a crouch. She shrugged and the staircase crumpled in on itself before shattering back into ice flakes that scattered on the wind.

"So I guess this is where we part ways," she said, folding her arms across her chest.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "And let a lady walk herself home at this time of night? No way." What'd I tell you? Gallant. As. Fuck. I swept one hand out wide. "Lead the way."

She rolled her eyes, but I didn't miss the slight upturn to one corner of her mouth as she turned and began to walk away. I smirked as I followed.

We moved past the institute's Main Building, which rivaled the dorms for largest structure on the campus. Its bricks were a golden brown and it looked like a miniature castle, complete with turrets and topped off with turquoise cone-shaped roofs. I could feel the structure glaring at me as we walked by. I wasn't talking metaphorically either. The thing was _actually_ glaring at me.

My hand to god, this entire institute is a living, breathing entity with a mind of its own. Guess that happens to a place when its owner is Yen Sid. It's constantly rearranging itself, moving a corridor here, shifting a room there, expanding this closet today, zapping that subbasement out of existence tomorrow… the place can be a total nightmare to navigate, especially if it doesn't like you. And me and it weren't exactly on speaking terms. It had made me tardy for my classes on more than one occasion.

Not sure why it was giving me the stink eye at this particular moment though. Maybe it was because I had broken curfew. Maybe it was because it saw me with Snow and thought I was corrupting a wayward lamb with my evil ways. Regardless, I responded in a way that any mature, logical, sane person would respond.

I stuck my tongue out at the building and flipped it off.

Not half a second later, something caught my foot and I crash landed hard into the snow-covered pavement. When I checked to see what I had tripped over, it was a golden brown brick that had come loose and fallen out of the corner of the Main Building.

"Been walking long?" Snow asked casually as she crouched down beside me. I narrowed my eyes at her. She snorted, "Are you okay?"

I didn't answer her question, instead electing to scowl at the building. It started emanating a low, high pitched noise. "...you hear that?"

She listened for a minute. "It's creaking. So? Old buildings creak."

Yeah right. That was a snicker if I ever heard one. The damn, moldy pile of bricks was being smug. I shook my head as I stood back up and brushed off my pants.

Snow cocked her head to one side. "What'd you trip over anyway?"

I looked again and the loose brick that had been there a second ago was now gone. The corner of the structure was intact once more. The building "creaked" again.

Fucking thing had it out for me.

"Nothing," I grumbled as I started walking again. She wasn't going to believe me anyway. No one else did. The school only ever pulled this crap on me. "Let's go."

I heard the snow crunching beneath her boots as she jogged to catch up and fall in step beside me. "You still owe me an explanation, by the way."

I gave her a sidelong glance. "For?"

We turned a corner. "For your h-" her words were cut off with a gasp and every muscle in my body tensed.

We had stumbled upon some guy hunched over on the ground, clasping his head and groaning. And in case you're wondering, no, that's not something you'd normally expect to see in the middle of the night on the grounds of Yen Sid's Institute for the Gifted. He seemed to be in pain. He was facing away from us, but I was pretty sure I recognized that mop of brown hair. Motioning to Snow to stay back, I took a cautious step forward. Reaching my hand towards him, I asked, "Professor… Terra?"

At the brush of my fingers against his shoulder, he violently whipped his head around. His eyes were wild and angry, but that's not what caused me to stagger backwards, nor every hair on the back of my neck to stand at attention. What did that was the fact that those eyes were flashing - no, _glowing_ a molten yellow.

A split second later, his eyes squeezed shut. The savage, predatorial energy that had seemingly been etched into his every muscle a moment before drained out of him and his whole body sagged as his hand went to his forehead. "...T-Terra?" he repeated, so weakly that I almost didn't hear it.

I exchanged a glance with Snow before looking back at him. "Um, yeah. You know, as in like… your name?"

"My…? That's… no, my name's not Terra. It's..." he shook his head. "...it's Terra…"

O...kay?

I blinked. "Ah… my mistake?"

His hand fell to his side and he slowly opened his blue eyes once again. _Blue_. Not yellow. Huh. Some strange trick of the light, maybe? The moon reflecting off his irises? His gaze narrowed as it tiredly shifted between Snow and I. "What are you students doing out after curfew?"

Crap.

"Uh… don't blame me. This troublemaker here made me do it," I jerked my thumb over my shoulder towards Snow. She punched me in the arm and I grunted.

He gave us a scowl that was halfhearted at best, then just shooed us away with a flick of his hand. "Just... return to your dorms at once. Don't let me catch you out here at this time of night again." And with that, he turned, stumbled but caught himself, and walked off.

"O _kay_ ," I breathed, stretching out the last syllable as we watched him leave. "That was weird."

"Is he always like that?" she asked, her eyes fixed on his back right up until he disappeared around a corner.

I shook my head. "Nah. That's Terra, he's a member of the faculty here. He's good people. He's usually pretty laid back as far as teachers go, but that was… I don't know what that was."

Her head tipped to one side. "He seemed confused. Maybe he was sleepwalking?"

"Maybe… or maybe he was just wasted." Or maybe he had been replaced with a pod person. Never rule out pod people. Never. I shrugged. "Whatever. Let's get a move on."

We made the rest of our trek back to her dorm building in silence. I was too wigged out by whatever it was that had just happened to say much of anything, I'm guessing she was on the same page. Her room was on the first floor and it wasn't hard to guess which one it was, given that it was the only one where the window wasn't shut tight to keep out the snow and chill.

"You were saying something before," I finally said as we came to a stop just beneath her windowsill. She blinked up at me and I scratched a spot behind my ear. "You know, about me owing you an explanation?"

"Ah. Right. I meant for your hair and tattoos. Since now you know why I wear these," she raised her gloved hands, wriggling her fingers a bit. "That was the deal, remember?"

"Oh. Well, for starters, these aren't tattoos." I rubbed my thumb over the mark on my left cheek, wiping it away. "See? Makeup."

A crease formed between her eyebrows. "Okay… then what's the deal with the makeup?"

"Social experiment. Wanted to see how the teachers would react. A lot also thought these were freshly inked tattoos just cuz I'm a," here I used air quotes, "upstart hooligan youth that's acting out for attention."

She hid a smile behind her hand.

"Most realized it was just makeup. Though I did manage to convince one that I was planning to run away and join the circus to follow my lifelong dream of becoming a clown."

She snorted at that and shook her head as she turned to face her window. It was pretty high up. I was tall enough that I'd be able to pull myself up and in, but a shortie like her? Not happening. I saw her reaching for her gloves and suspected she was going to perform the same trick she had used to get herself over the outer wall. I had a better idea. Without warning, I placed my hands on her hips and boosted her up to the window ledge. She yelped and clambered into her room before spinning around to glare down at me.

"But really," I went on, grinning up at her as if nothing had happened, "my favorite was the professor who thought I had started a cult and that I was using these markings to signify myself as the leader or high priest or whatever."

She quirked an eyebrow. "You're joking."

"Nope."

"I don't believe you."

I fished a crumpled up piece of paper out of my pocket and held it out to her. "See for yourself."

"A detention slip?" she asked as she took it from me.

"I'm planning on getting it framed."

She read over it and bit back a smirk. "You prayed to the Dark One in the middle of class?"

I shrugged. "Cthulhu fhtagn."

"Alright," she shook her head as she passed the paper back to me through the window. "What about the hair?"

I pocketed it once more. "Egg whites and flax seed."

"Excuse me?"

"The secret behind my glamourous pincushion look."

"Glamourous?" she repeated dryly.

"Yup. I should be on the cover of Vogue."

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the windowsill. "Or a Martha Stewart catalog. Sounds like you're making an omelette."

"What can I say? It's better for the environment than hairsprays." At her arched eyebrow, I asked, "What?"

"It's nothing. I just didn't realize you were the type of guy to… I don't know, go green."

"Psh, I'm all about saving the environment."

She snorted, "You mean when you're not setting it on fire."

I clasped my hands behind my head and beamed. "Hey, I figure it all balances out somehow in the grand scheme of things."

Snow shook her head. "Alright, well, that answers _how_ you do your hair like that, but not _why_."

"Haven't you been listening? I'm an upstart hooligan youth that's acting out for attention, remember?"

"That's just what you want people to think."

I cocked my head. "And what do _you_ think?"

"That you're not really the mysterious bad boy you pretend to be. That you're actually a total dweeb." Ouch. Harsh. The corner of her eyes crinkled. "And that if you're not careful, I'll figure out all your secrets soon."

One side of my mouth curved up. "Oh, I think you'll find that I'm still full of surprises."

She grinned as she settled an elbow on the window ledge and propped her chin in her palm. "Yeah? Like what?"

I'm not sure exactly what possessed me do it. Maybe it was the challenge dancing in her eyes and voice. Maybe it was the total _'But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?_ ' vibe I was getting. Maybe it was just because she's hella cute. Like, hella. All I know is, one minute I'm on the ground looking up at her, the next I've used the windowsill to hoist myself up and balance on my hands as I pressed my lips to hers.

She stiffened, her breath hitched, but she didn't pull back. It wasn't really so much a deep kiss, but it wasn't just a quick and innocent peck either. Come on, I ain't the quick and innocent type, you know? I broke away after several seconds, flashing her a shit-eating grin. "Like that."

She stood stock still like a statue, her wide, unblinking eyes seeming to stare right through me. She didn't say anything.

Grinning wider, I relaxed my elbows and plopped my feet back down on the ground. "And what do ya know?" I chirped. "Your touch didn't freeze me into solid ice. Maybe you're not as dangerous as you think."

Still she remained motionless. Not so much as a twitch of the eyelash nor a peep out of her. Nothing.

Damn, I'm good.

"Well, this was fun. We should do it again sometime."

Silence.

Chuckling, I turned with a wave and began to walk away. "Laters, Snow."

There might have been a bit of a skip to my step as I headed back to my room. I didn't get more than ten feet however before I heard her call out, "Axel, wait!"

Smirking, I spun on my heel. "Hey, you got my name right this-"

 _Thwack!_

That, my friends, was the sound of a hard, ice cold snowball hitting me square in the face.

Yup. I probably deserved that.

* * *

How I wish I could go back to that night.

That one pure, innocent, sweet and simple little night.

The night before everything started going to shit.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Annnnnnnd with that, our intrepid duo's lil late night adventure comes to a close, along with this lil prologue to a much bigger story that I have planned! Dropped a couple hints as to what's to come, hope it got ya'll hooked! Unfortunately, the next update won't be for a while as it is not quite ready yet - more info on that in my profile. I'll be sure to post updates to my profile as I progress, so keep an eye on it! And b_ _e sure to **fave** and **follow** this story so when I do next update, you won't miss it!_

 _Special thanks to_ _ **Amarxlen** , **SoraKairiRikuNamine** , and **Arisa Kiryuu**_ _for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!  
_


	7. Princesses and Punches

_~*~_  
 _Princess and Punches_  
 _~*~_

Welcome to Yen Sid's Institute for the Gifted, where superpowers are like belly buttons. Everyone has one. Here, when you fail an exam, chances are good you'll wind up in the infirmary with a few cracked ribs and your eyebrows missing. Here, extracurricular activities include running fast enough to break the sound barrier and shooting a moving target the size of a kumquat from over two miles away with nothing but a bow and arrow that are positively primeval. Here, the class clown flies, the Phys Ed instructor can bench press an aircraft carrier, and if the prom queen told you to jump off a bridge, you'd do so with a smile on your face and the warm fuzzies in your heart. Here, earth, wind and fire is not just the name of some oldies band you were conceived to. It's raw, physical power leaping from the fingertips of prepubescents.

In short, it's enough to make any comic book obsessed neckbeard fuckboy piss his Wonder Woman underoos like an overexcited chihuahua.

But mutant abilities aside, we're not really all that different from any other educational establishment. Sure, that girl over there might be in a constant state of falling apart - literally... don't even get me started on the time I found her frigging _thumb_ in my morning bowl of Fruit Loops. She was super apologetic about it afterwards, but still… ick.

Anyway, strip away the powers and really all you're left with is just a bunch of unruly minors running on nothing but hormones, stress, and triple mocha latte frappuccinos. And what happens when said teenagers are all crammed together into a tight space like a pack of sardines? Same thing that'd happen anywhere else: highschool drama bullshit.

And with the bullshit comes the cliques.

Settle in, kiddos, we've got a lot of ground to cover. It's all too much to digest in one sitting, so I'm going to break it down into bite size chunks for you so as not to overwhelm you.

Might as well start at the top. The crème de la crème. The fairest of the fair. The It Girls. The upper crust. The campus royalty. The Princesses. If the student body was a living, breathing organism, then these chicks would make up the heart, the thriving, pumping core controlling the flow of life's blood throughout the system.

First of all, you have Anne. Her full name is actually Snoanna Whitman, but if anyone asks, you didn't hear it from me. She _hates_ it with passion. Wouldn't you if your parents had cursed you with such a ridiculous name? She has seven brothers and from what I hear, all their names are just as dopey.

You would think being raised around so much testosterone would have turned her into a tomboy. On the contrary, she had those boys wearing makeup and playing tea party with her on a daily basis. Yeah, her powers of persuasion are legendary. They are also her actual power. She says jump, you don't even ask how high, you just do it before you even know what's happening. With the wave of a hand, she once forced the whole institute to reenact a live performance of _High School Musical_ just because she was bored. There's two hours of my life I'd rather forget. The school administration must have tightened her leash afterwards because she hasn't tried anything like it since.

Then there's Cindy. She's a total clean nut. Like, "oh no, there's a loose strand of hair on my sweater, better pull out the lint roller and swipe it over my whole outfit… twice" type of nut. When throwing stuff away in the trash, I've purposely missed while she's around just to see if she'd pop a blood vessel. She supposedly gets it from her stepmom, who I hear is a major control freak. You know the type of stuff. Cook the food, do the dishes, vacuum the floor, finish your AP homework, tutor your sisters, maintain a perfect four-point-freaking-oh grade average… trust me, the girl was long overdue for a nervous breakdown.

Luckily for her, help arrived just in the nick of time, and that help was of the fluffy woodland creature variety. That's right, my friends, she has the ability to control animals. And what's the first thing she did when she discovered her power? Put those little critters to work. Within the hour, she had her own personal rodent sweatshop up and running in her bedroom, sewing together the dress she needed to get done for her Home Ec assignment while she snuck out to a party. If she had stopped there, she might have gotten away with it too with none the wiser. But then she just had to go and get greedy. Having a few mice stitch together a frock is one thing, but having two squirrels and a chipmunk do your Trig homework? Now that was just asking to get caught.

Next up is Aurora. She's a child of the system, like me. That's actually not all that uncommon for us superfreaks. When we're born into this strange new world, we have one job: to be happy, healthy, _normal_ bouncing bundles of joy. And boy howdy, did we royally screw the pooch when we skimped on the normal part of that agreement. Once the parents discover they wound up with way more than they ever bargained for, I almost don't blame them for getting out while the getting's good. Almost.

Back to Aurora's little tale, she grew up in a convent orphanage, raised by three nuns. She has no idea who her real parents are. Not sure if that's a bummer or a blessing. I'm inclined to think the latter, given I know exactly what a pair of deadbeat fuckups my own folks are. Anyway, one day Mother Superior realized little Aurora was not quite like the other kids and shipped her off to the institute. Now, she may not exactly sound like Princess material, but the other girls must have saw something in her for they quickly took her under their wing, elevating her to the higher echelons of juvenescent society. As for what her ability is, I haven't got the foggiest. Beyond what I've shared already, I really don't know much about the girl. Besides the fact that chick likes to sleep. Like, a _lot_. She spends more time catching Z's than I do, and that's saying something. Perhaps she just really buys into that whole beauty rest spiel.

Now we come to Jasmine, a lovely exotic wildflower from the middle east. Rumor has it she's an honest to god Arabian princess, but dunno how much stock you should put into that. One thing's for certain though, the chick was sheltered with a capital S. If she is actual royalty, then girl needed to get outside them palace walls more often. You should have seen the way her face lit up the first time she ate a curly fry, you'd think she'd just witnessed Elvis Presley stepping into the building… er, if she even knew who that was.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows however. You gotta mind your P's and Q's around this one, because if you piss her off, the claws come out. They come out four inches long and sharp enough to strip the meat clean off your bones. See, her power is… well, it's kind of hard to describe, but just imagine she's a Super Saiyan and going all "fusion ha!" with a tiger, then you'll get the picture. Basically, all the perks that come with being one of nature's deadliest predators, neatly wrapped into one nice compact human-shaped package. Boosted strength, speed and agility? Check. Night vision and stealthier than a ninja's shadow? Check. Retractable claws and fangs capable of shredding a gazelle into confetti in under two seconds flat? Check, check, and double fucking check. She claims that she's not like the rest of us superfreaks, that she was gifted her powers by some benevolent tiger spirit called Rajah. Whatever. If it prowls like a mutant and growls like a mutant, it's probably a freaking mutant.

Last but most certainly not least, there's Kairi Atigi. Kairi is your textbook case of the feisty redhead. Trust me, I'd know, being a fiery (heh) ginger myself. Takes one to know one and all that jazz. Oldest of three sisters, daughter to the mayor of some insignificant speck of an island out there in the big blue, you could say she's the black sheep of the family. She has a rebellious streak about a mile long and back at home, she was a bit of a serial runaway. She pulled her little disappearing act so often that her old man gave up on calling the police after a while. He knew where she'd always turn up sooner or later anyway: hiding in her boyfriend's bedroom.

Kairi likes to put up a tough front, but deep down she's a total sweetie pie. She's loyal to a fault and can't stand the sight of her friends hurt. Fortunately for her, it's never a sight she has to stand for long, not with her powers of healing. With Kairi around, gone are the days of rubbing alcohol and TMNT-print band-aids. Kairi scoffs in the face of injury. Scrapes, cuts, bruises, broken bones, disease, you name it. None of them stand a chance against her. Word is if you were to bite the big one, she'd even be able to yank you from death's door and back into the land of the living. Not sure how true that is, but I try to stay on her good side. If there's a chance someone's a walking, talking rolodex of get-out-of-Hades-free cards, then you should make damn well sure that person will want to use one of those cards on you.

On the downside, it's a total bitch trying to fake sick with someone like Kairi around. No more groaning about your tummy hurting so you can just flop in bed and play Candy Crush on your phone all day. Ah, it's always the little things you take for granted.

Anyway, there you have it. The fancy-shmancy, hoity-toity Princesses in a nutshell. Okay, some of them may have had more humble beginnings than the others, and sure, they can be sweethearts when they want to be. Still, these are the type of girls that if your path crosses theirs in the halls, you step aside and give them the right of way. There's also more to them than that, a lot of history that I left out, but we'll get to that later.

You gotta keep in mind that the institute is vast and its students diverse. Why zero in on only one group of this eccentric little academy we call home?

After all, this is just the proverbial tip of the superfreak iceberg.

* * *

Honesty is the best policy. It is in my book at least. Sure, I may stretch the truth a bit here, bend it a little there, and it might come out looking kind of like a crazy straw by the end of it all. But it is still the truth, pure and shining. I say this because I like to be upfront and avoid misunderstandings wherever possible. So, cards on the table. Let's get something straight, right here, right now:

"I'm not a good guy."

The scratching of pen on paper stopped as the blue haired beauty sitting across from me looked up from the notepad in her lap to fix me with a pointed look, one eyebrow arched. "So you believe," she said slowly, "that the university building harbors animosity towards you because you're… not a good guy?"

Meet Aqua, the institute therapist. Or Doc Aq for short, if you prefer.

She doesn't.

I shrugged. "More or less."

Her brow furrowed and she crossed her legs. "Okay. Let's set aside for now the notion that our school is a self aware entity capable of forming thoughts and opinions about its students. We can come back to that later."

"Whatever floats your boat, doc," I muttered, scratching a finger behind my ear.

"Great. Now, what makes you think you're not a good person?"

I slouched down further into my cushy chair, lifting my shoulders again before letting them fall. "If the shoe fits."

My answers may seem to be a bit more on the monosyllabic side than you'd probably expect. Especially from the likes of me, an individual so severely and shamelessly afflicted with the worst case of chronic word vomit you've ever seen. But there was a very good reason for my sudden onset of cat-got-your-tongue syndrome, and it was self inflicted. What we had here was a good ol' fashion game of Spot the Defense Mechanism.

Doc Aq may or may not have been aware of my little game that she was currently participating in.

See, the good doctor here was not entirely a full-fledged member of the therapist community. She was originally hired on as a guidance counselor to help us wayward youths adjust and settle into our new lives as attendees to this absurd little institute. You'd be surprised however at just how much professional help a small army of juvenile superfreaks needs. Then again, maybe you wouldn't. And while there may be some overlap between the roles of a guidance counselor and a therapist, the two are really not one and the same. It did not take Aqua long to realize her credentials were just not going to quite cut it. So she was trying to rectify the situation by taking online courses to earn her Masters in Psychology to become fully certified in the shrink department.

That's where me and my little game came in. Me being the good samaritan that I am, I just wanted to ensure the doc was getting her money's worth. Ya know, putting her through her paces. There's a lotta screwed up basket cases out there, and I'm definitely a far cry from the worst. I was just making sure she was prepared to deal with whatever the big book of mental instability decided to throw at her.

So here we had Round One: Psychological Resistance. The unwillingness or refusal to open up or otherwise discuss anything clinically relevant.

I.E. I ain't saying shit.

"That's not an answer and you know it," she replied coolly. Her pen started to move again as she jotted something down. "Is there something you've done that you feel was immoral, Mr. Moyasu?"

With a snort, I sat up straight once more and removed the cigarette tucked behind my ear. "Must we keep up this charade?"

"And what charade would that be?" she asked, looking up at me once more.

"The one where you act like you're taking notes when we both know you're really just writing my name over and over again and drawing lil hearts around it," I smirked, winking as I twirled the Marlboro between my fingers.

We're going to write off Round One as a draw. On the one hand, she hadn't called me out on what I was doing. On the other, her line of questioning might have actually gotten her somewhere eventually.

So it was time for a new tactic. Welcome to Round Two: Humor.

She closed her eyes with a soft chuckle. "At least your ego is as healthy and inflated as ever. We really need to work on your illusions of grandeur however."

"Grandeur? My my, who has the ego now, hm?" I asked, sticking the cigarette between my teeth and snapping my fingers. The tip lit up like a firefly.

"It's not ego, merely a statement of fact." Her eyes narrowed a fraction at the cancer stick. The tendril of smoke that had barely begun to trickle out of it curled up into a tight ball and just like that, the cigarette hissed and went out. I frowned.

Rude.

If you hadn't guessed already, Doc Aq also has a superpower, just like the rest of us here. What'd I tell ya? Like belly buttons. She can generate force fields. Or as I like to call them, little invisible bubbles of go fuck yourself. They hurt like a bitch if she decides to chuck them at you for target practice. They're also impenetrable little bastards that are really good for defense. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

Including oxygen.

Now you're probably putting two and two together as to what caused the untimely demise of my cigarette. Taking it in hand once more, I flicked the tip. A tiny spherical ripple glimmered protectively around it before vanishing from sight once more. Poor thing, snuffed out in the prime of life. If that isn't a blatant misuse of your mutant ability, I don't know what is.

With a sigh, I pocketed it and flashed her a lopsided grin. "Aw shucks, I'm touched, doc. Didn't know ya cared."

"Of course I care," she said, all sugar sweet like. "I care about my office smelling like an ashtray. I would think that would be obvious."

I placed a hand over my chest, fingers splayed. "There you go, breaking my heart. Why you always gotta play so coy with me? Afraid your boyfriend will get jelly?"

Her back stiffened slightly as her face fell neutral. "Terra is not my boyfriend."

Wouldja look at that? Why, I do believe I struck a nerve.

Let's update the scoreboard, shall we? Axel, one. Doc Aq, zero.

"I never said he was. I only used the word boyfriend, you're the one who made the leap to Professor T. Interesting," I hummed, relaxing into my seat a bit and steepling my fingers in front of my face. "So, doc, how does this make you feel?"

She lifted her chin. "Actually, I'd much rather discuss what you were doing out after curfew last night."

She had probably been hoping to catch me off guard by the abrupt question. Well, sorry to disappoint, but I remained as cool as a cucumber. "Who told you that? Your boyfriend?"

Ding ding. Round 3: Deflection.

"It doesn't matter who told me. And I repeat, Terra is not my-"

"Fine then, your booty call, or whatever you want to label it. Unless," pause for dramatic effect, "...you two _aren't_ labeling it. Fascinating. Whose decision was that? Was it his? Does your man have commitment issues? How does that make you feel?"

"Mr. Moyasu, we are not here to discuss my personal-"

"While we're on the subject, doc, did you ever consider you might be shrinking the wrong head here?" I asked as I leaned forward, tapping a finger to my temple. "Have you noticed Professor T acting odd lately?"

That brought her up short. Tipping her head to one side, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean as in does he seem to be a few marbles short of a Hungry Hungry Hippos game? Because when I bumped into him last night, there was certainly a screw loose somewhere." Closing my eyes, I shook my head. "He definitely was not alright upstairs."

Aqua frowned at me for a few silent heartbeats, then the scribbling on her notepad started back up. "Your concern is noted."

Meaning, filed away under Z for _Zero Fucks Given._

Tch. Typical grownup. Always telling you they're here to listen and help you out, but the minute you try to tell them something important, they brush it off as a bullshit cry for attention or whatever.

"Now," she went on, "stop trying to deflect." Crap. She'd caught on to this one. Score one for Doc Aq. "I understand you weren't alone last night. That a new enrollee was with you. Miss…" she flipped a few pages to locate the name, "...Fryse, was it?"

My muscles tensed for a microsecond, then relaxed again as I smiled. "Shoot. Would you look at the time? Looks like our hour's up."

"Nice try, but we still have-"

I raised my arm, lazily pointing an index finger at the antique clock hanging on the wall just as it chimed noon.

With a sigh, she closed her notepad and said, "We'll pick this up at your next session on Friday."

"Can hardly wait," I said as I launched out of the chair and directly towards the exit. "Laters, Doc Aq." I blew her a kiss and quickly shut the door behind me, cutting off whatever reprimand was surely forming on her tongue for my use of the unsanctioned nickname.

Talk about saved by the bell. Bringing up Snow like that? Now that was cutting dangerously close to feelings-and-shit territory.

...feelings? Psh, like I have any. Especially not for some chick I'd spent a grand total of three hours in the presence of. Man, I got all worked up over nothing.

Shoving my hands into my pockets, I began weaving my way through the labyrinthine corridors that made up the institute. Honestly, this place is big enough to secede and become its own self-declared nation. By all rights, people should be lost for days around here. However, most don't seem to run into any trouble, even the newbies. Then again, most people don't have a long standing spot on this overgrown heap of crumbling bricks' shit list. That is to say, most people aren't me.

I turned one final corner towards the dining hall. Or rather, where the dining hall should have been.

Instead I was met with a dead end.

I stopped just short of a head on collision with the unexpected wall. Squinting at it, I snorted through my nose. "Nice try, you rotten, crusty old roach motel," I grumbled to the empty hallway, which remained stoically silent. I turned back in the direction I had come from, "But you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that if-"

I faceplanted into a wall. A wall that had not been there a moment ago. I would know, given that I had not ten seconds earlier passed through the exact space said wall now currently occupied.

The institute let loose a long, low, distinctly _amused_ creak.

See the shit I have to put up with?

Rubbing my sore nose, I glared up at the ceiling. "If this is what gets your rocks off, pal, you seriously need a hobby. Or to get laid. Yeah, find yourself a nice lady villa, bang one out, and leave me the hell alone already, you termite-infested, asbestos-laced, rickety old piece of-"

"Axel?"

I whipped my head around towards the voice to discover the dead end was a dead end no more. Instead, it had been replaced by the entrance to the bustling dining hall. And standing between me and it were a pair of teens who were staring at me as if I had decided today would be a splendid day to take a pleasant stroll right off the deep end.

Demyx, the guy who had said my name, asked carefully, "Who ya talking to there, buddy?" The girl who was with him, Ariel, just continued to stare at me with a frown and said nothing. But then, she never was much of a talker.

So I returned the favor and stared right back. "The voices in my head," I deadpanned, flicking him right between the eyebrows as I walked passed them towards the dining hall, "duh."

Believe it or not, that answer actually sounded more sane than the truth. At least in a place like this, it did.

Ah, the cafeteria. The great equalizer. Let's face it, superfreak or no, we all gotta eat. And no matter your social status or mutant ability, we're all the same in this room. Thusly, everyone must obey the laws of the land. Here, all shall hath a table and a table shall be hath by all. Here, all must heed the call of the meal bell, lest thee go hungry whilst thee await its chime anew. Here, all will await their turn in line and woe unto the fool who tries to cut, for they shall surely suffer the wrath of the great and terrible Mr. Lunch Lady Remy, blessed be his name.

...what can I say? Grub is serious business.

As I stepped inside, I stopped for a moment to take in the ambiance of the packed, noisy dining hall. My eyes scanned the crowd, searching for three faces in particular. One was sadly, but not unexpectedly, absent. Zeroing in on the other two, I meandered towards their table.

"Hey squirts," I greeted as I ruffled their hair, first the golden spikes of the boy, then the noir strands of the girl, before plopping down across the table from them. "How's it hanging?"

"Oh, hi Axel!" Roxas beamed at me.

Xion snerked beside him. "H-hey," she said, her voice quivering with barely contained laughter. Snickering, Roxas elbowed her as she covered her mouth with her hands.

And here we have the rugrats. I'll admit, I never exactly pictured myself becoming the foster parent in all but name to a couple of fourteen year olds, and especially not at that ripe old age of seventeen myself. But take just one look at those frigging adorable puppy dog faces of theirs and I dare you not to give a damn. I always did have a tendency for picking up strays.

It was clear the day Roxas checked into the institute that his mind had long since checked out. Him and his brother both. It was like the lights were on, but no one was home. The two of them must have been through some really fucked up shit before they came here, but neither of them remember. Or don't want to remember. Either way, ol' Rox here was a total zombie. As luck would have it though, _Shaun of the Dead_ just so happened to be my favorite movie. So a few zed-word jokes from me and many, _many_ blank stares from him and our legendary friendship was born. Sure, it was slow going at first, but once his vocabulary evolved beyond "gragh" and "brains", we were like two peas in a pod. He still can be somewhat a space cadet from time to time, but he's a lot better than he used to be.

As for Xion, she is the littlest of the Atigi family. That's right, Kairi is her older sister. It would seem that being a freak of nature runs in the family. Then again, it usually does. It's gotta be rough though, living in the shadow of your two older siblings. Especially when everything you do just feels like a rehash of something they've already done long before you came along. Even being a mutant. Oh, you have superpowers you say? Yawn, been there, done that. And when Sister Number One is the cool rebellious one and Sister Number Two is the smart pretty one, well now, that doesn't leave a whole lot for Sister Number Three to be, does it? Except for maybe the one you tend to forget. Is it any wonder then that since day one of her arrival at Yen Sid's school, she constantly had a hood pulled up over her face and her eyes pointed down at her feet? She was so used to fading into the background at home, why should this place to be any different? Answer to that came in the form of three simple little words: Roxas. And. Me. We assimilated her faster than you can say "resistance is futile." And the rest, as they say, was history.

Looking at the chipper lil munchkins before me now, it was easy to see they'd come a long way from the sad, sorry states I'd found them in. You'd hardly even recognize them. It was enough to make the shriveled old heart of a grinch like me grow three sizes bigger.

However, this was a bit... _too_ perky.

I cocked an eyebrow in their direction. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing!" they blurted out at the same time.

My bullshit meter rocketed through the roof, into outer space, and was halfway to Neptune by now.

I frowned and narrowed my eyes at them. They smiled back, the picture of pure innocence. Halos were all but manifesting over their sweet little heads. Oh yeah, something was up. And it took me exactly three-point-two seconds to figure out what it was.

I smirked.

Now I'm about to do a thing. And it's gonna seem like a douchey douchebag thing to do. But just roll with it for a minute. All will be revealed in time. Trust me.

I hunched forward, folding my arms on the table. "So, Xion. You trying something new with your hair?"

"M-" Roxas began, but was silenced as Xion threw a hasty hand over his mouth.

Shooting him a look, she then furrowed her brow at me. "My hair? No… why?"

"Huh," I squinted, tapping a finger to my cheek. "I dunno, you just seem different today… prettier."

Her head rocked back at bit. "I do?" She then paled slightly as she noticed Rox glowering at her and stammered, "I m-mean, I _don't_. Definitely not. I've looked _way_ better in the past. In fact, today I look like a… an absolute potato."

"Aw, don't be so modest. Tater-ocity aside, you're rocking it today. Hella cute." I rubbed my chin with a low hum. "...have you lost weight? You seem less heavy."

Wait for it.

Roxas's face darkened, doing what I could only logically assume was his best impression of a steamed lobster. Xion squeaked, "What?! N-no, of course not! I'm just as heavy as I've always been!" Even as the last word slipped out, her hands flew up to her own mouth as Roxas's eyes narrowed into slits. She gulped. "Er, rather, I've… never been. Heavy, that is. I've always been, uh…" she struggled for a word momentarily before nervously trying, "perfection?"

Roxas pinched the bridge of his nose.

Alright, it was time to take it up a notch. It was time… to go full dudebro.

I scrutinized a second more, then snapped my fingers, my lips stretching into a grin. "That's it!"

Word to the wise, however. You should never…

"What's it?" Xion flinched, eyes darting about.

... _ever_ …

"You've graduated to C's!" I declared, groping my man boobs for emphasis.

...go full dudebro.

Next thing I knew, the entire right half of my face erupted in pain as a fist connected hard with my jaw. It wasn't enough to knock me out of my chair, but it was pretty damn close.

"Asshole," Roxas growled as he gave his hand a shake, the knuckles turning red after the impact.

Squeezing one eye shut against the sting, I peered out through the other at my assailant. What I saw brought a smug smile to my face. "Hi, Xion. Killer right hook you got there."

"Eh?" he tensed. Then his eyes widened as he spotted his black bangs in his peripheral. You read that right, _black_. Not blonde. "Oh," Roxas-except-not-really slumped forward slightly with a pout. Then his features began to blur and melt away (it would have been rather disconcerting if I wasn't used to it) before solidifying once more into the shape of Xion.

...sitting right next to Xion.

Confused? Yeah, I wouldn't blame you. Things tend to go the way of an Escher sketch when you're dealing with shapeshifters. That would be what Xion is: a shifter. Doppelganger class. Oh yeah, there's enough shapeshifters 'round these parts to require categorizing, but you'll see that for yourself soon enough.

Anyway, if you hadn't already guessed from my clever classification, Xion is the type that can change into anyone, and I do mean anyone. Living, dead, fictional, or mix and match if she's really feeling adventurous. But she can only do people. Everything else - animal, vegetable, mineral - is off the menu. Don't let yourself be fooled into thinking that's a handicap however, she can still be quite devious given half a chance. Like the time back on her island when she put on her dad's face (i.e. the mayor's) and strolled into his office (a.k.a. city hall). And what did she do with all that newfound legislative power at her fingertips? Established Sea Salt Ice Cream Day as a new and national holiday on her fair isle. Her dad's still trying to unravel that mess. Apparently it's a lot easier creating a holiday on that little archipelago of theirs than it is to take one away.

"You knew," the other Xion mumbled as her form rippled and morphed as well, until Roxas - the real Roxas - sat in front of me.

Now you're probably thinking he has the same power as Xion. Good guess. It'd be a wrong guess, but still a good one, so you get some props. No, his is the ability to mimic the power of other superfreaks. Ever fantasized about flying? Turning invisible? Being able to crush a tank with only the power of your mind? Sure you have. We all have, it's only human nature to want what we don't have, and Rox is no exception to that. The difference between him and the rest of us poor schmucks? He actually gets to do any and all of the above, as long as a mutant with the desired power is within his radar. Some are easier than others, it all just depends. For example, he took to Xion's shapeshifting like a duck to water. My power, on the other hand, he took to more like a dead tree takes to wildfire. Needless to say, it was a good thing he was very familiar with the concept of stop, drop, and roll. He hasn't been too keen on trying it a second time.

"The whole time, you knew," he repeated, scratching the back of his head. "What gave us away?"

I shot up an index finger. "First of all, never play Texas Hold 'Em. Your poker faces are _terrible_. Second of all," I raised another finger, "last time I checked, Xion did not have a good three inches on you."

Roxas cringed. "Oh. Right. Forgot about height difference."

"Lastly," I went on, "trading faces? Seriously, guys? How lame is that? That's like trying to prank someone by swapping the contents of transparent salt and pepper shakers. Who gives a shit? Come on, I taught you two better than that."

Xion's eyes flashed and there was a sly upward tug to one corner of her lips. Oh, there was no doubt about it. She was going to make me eat those words raw and sans seasoning. Bring it, girlie. While inwardly she plotted something diabolical, outwardly she merely asked, "So if you knew, why didn't you just say so? Maybe could have saved yourself some pain."

"What, this?" I pressed a thumb to the tender spot on my jaw. Yup, that was going to leave a mark. "Worth it. Besides, I deserve a good punch to the face from time to time. Puts me in my place. Keeps me grounded."

Rox snorted. "Your kinks are your own, man, you'll get no judgement from me. But please, I beg of you, keep them to yourself."

"Seriously," Xion nodded, her eyes crinkling. "We don't need to hear about your turn ons."

I opened my mouth to retort, but came up short when a flash of platinum blonde caught my eye from across the room. Whatever I had been about to say slipped my mind and instead I muttered, "Speaking of which…"

Snow stood at the threshold leading into the dining hall. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, absently tugging at her gloves as she stared wide eyed out into the sea of noisy teens. She was quite clearly torn, unsure of whether she should face the terrifying monstrosity that was the cafeteria or if she should turn tail. On the precipice of _nopety nope_ and _ah screw it_. She worried her lower lip between her teeth, gaze darting about.

"Axel?" Roxas voice pierced my consciousness, his hand waving in front of my face.

Crap. Was I staring? Oops. Creeper alert.

Xion turned in her seat to follow my gaze. "What are you-"

"Sorry, kiddos, gotta run," I cut in, springing to my feet. "I'll catch you two later. You know the place."

Xion tried again, "But-"

Too late. I was already halfway across the lunchroom.

Which, mind you, was no easy feat. Did I mention it was packed? Because it was _packed_. We're talking wall-to-wall acne and hormones. As I half ran, half jostled my way through the crowd, my focus never left Snow. She hadn't spotted me yet. The internal tug of war between fight or flight was plain on her face, and flight was winning. I saw her feet edging back towards the exit. No no _no!_ I wasn't moving fast enough. I needed a shortcut. Looking ahead, I saw that there was still a table between me and her. And not just any table.

The Princesses' table.

How does that saying go again? The one about the devil driving? Ah well, you know the gist.

"Ladies," I chirped, flashing them my pearly whites as I vaulted straight across their table. Plates rattled, food spattered, Aurora gasped, Jasmine swore. So, clearly, all in all good times. I thought so anyway. The Princesses didn't seem to share my opinion however, not if the choice words and names they called after me as I took off once more were any indication.

Just as Snow turned to leave, I came to a skidding, stumbling stop in her path, blocking her hasty retreat. "Hey," I panted, attempting to casually prop myself against the doorframe, missing, almost falling, catching myself, and finally leaning a shoulder against it successfully on the second try.

Like I said. No feelings here. None whatsoever. Nope.

Surprise dashed across her face, with relief hot on its heels. Someone was happy to see me. She tried to mask it though, fighting the smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Clasping her hands behind her back, she said, "Hi… Urkel was it?"

I huffed a snort through my nose. "Tch. That one's not even close."

Now the grin broke through. "I- oh!" her eyes grew round as they shifted from my face to a spot directly above my left ear. She frowned, tilting her head slightly, before pointing just north her own ear and saying, "You have, er… in your hair, there's a-"

"Shit, did something get caught in it again?" My hand snapped up, fingers dragging through my scalp. "I swear, this mane has its own orbit. NASA should be classifying it any day now." I probed my locks until I felt it. It was plump, fuzzy, and chittered.

...um?

Quirking an eyebrow, I took hold of whatever it was and gently pulled it from my hair. Bringing it around to take a look, I came nose to nose with a squirrel. That's right. A freaking _squirrel_. I'm used to my spikes snagging things all the time, like leaves and cobwebs. But woodland creatures? This a was new one, even for me. It seemed the mane's gravitational pull only grew stronger with each passing day.

I blinked down at it. It blinked back up at me. Heh, the little fellah was kinda cute act-

 _Chomp!_

"Motherfu-" The fluffy little bastard bit me! Stifling my curse, I yanked the monster out of my flesh and scowled. Where had it even come from? It wasn't li-

Then it clicked. Like reindeer hooves on a rooftop. My head whipped around back towards the Princesses' table. Sure enough, one of the ladies seated there was shooting me a look with some serious daggers. I gave her a crooked smirk.

"Yo Cindy! I believe this belongs to you!" With that, I fastball specialed the vermin right at her.

Oh cram it, PETA people, don't get your panties in a pretzel. No animals were harmed in the making of this epic yarn.

The Princess in question froze momentarily, eyes wide, mouth agape, before snapping out of it just in time to catch the squirrel. Hitting me with a glare, she then gave the critter a quick once over. It merely twitched its snout and proceeded to groom its whiskers. What'd I tell you? The little furball was fine.

As for Snow, she had fixed me with a blank stare, one eyebrow raised. I gave a weak chuckle, scratching the tip of my nose, and shrugged. "Just another day in our lil slice o' heaven here at Yen Sid's Institute for the Gifted."

She hesitated before raising an uncertain hand and gesturing between Cindy and me. "...so that kind of thing is a daily occurrence?"

"Nah. Well, actually… the general insanity, yes. But the squirrel-chucking, not specifically, no. We save that for special occasions."

Her head turned as she side eyed me. "Today's a special occasion?"

"Of course! A certain someone has finally decided to descend from her Fortress of Solitude and grace us lowly commoners with her radiant presence," I said with a mock bow and a wink.

She pressed a knuckle to her lips, hiding a tiny smile. "Well, a certain someone is thinking this may have not been such a good idea after all," she said, the frown returning as she glanced around the lively lunchroom once more.

It hadn't escaped my notice that there was an interesting topic we had yet to touch upon. A certain something that was being left unsaid. You know what I'm talking about… an elephant in the room, if you will, whose name started with a K and rhymed with bliss. She hadn't brought it up yet. To be fair, neither had I. It was cool, though. If that's how she wanted to play this, I'd follow her lead. For now.

"You're right, it wasn't a good idea. It was a _phenomenal_ idea." I spread my arms out wide with a flourish, "Now I can give you the grand tour, starting here in the mess hall. Or ye olden noshery, as I like to call it."

Snow bit back a chuckle, fingers idly toying with her braid. "Okay, sure I suppose. I mean, you did toss a squirrel in my honor. It would be a shame for all that effort to go to waste."

"Exactly!" I took her hand and tucked it into the crook of my arm, gently pulling her towards the crowd. "Now, if you'll kindly take a gander to our left, you'll see-"

The soft, but unmistakable sound of a throat clearing interrupted me. "Trying to steal my job, I see," a new voice spoke up. The throng parted ahead of us to reveal a petite blonde in a white dress, arms crossed over her chest, one corner of her mouth turned up.

Here you have it, ladies and germs. The third and final of the sisters you've been hearing so much about. The one, the only: Naminé Atigi.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Oh Em Gee guys! I LIIIIIIIIIVE! Bet you thought I was gone for good, huh? Think again! Can't get rid of me that easily! Sorry for my long absence, life got too real for a bit. I've put a quick rundown on what's been going on with me in my profile for anyone who's curious. But the important part? I'M BACK! And have finally hit a place where I can focus on writing again, so yay!_

 _Alright, next item of business! MUCH praise and MUCH worship to the wonderful and stunning **Arisa Kiryuu** for being a fantabulous beta for this chapter! Thank you, jujube! Also, special thanks to **Spiderfan626** , **Amarxlen** , **SoraKairiRikuNamine** , and **Arisa Kiryuu** for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews!_

 _Incoming wall of text alert! Apologies, I just can't help myself sometimes!_

 _So good news, everyone! This was the first of three - that's right, count 'em, one, two, THREE chapters that I have written up for Svarog and are ready to post! Hope the length of this chapter wasn't off putting for anyone. I know, long chapters are usually better, but I didn't want it to feel like it was dragging on either! Next chapter is even longer, and the one after that? EVEN LONGER. (that's what she said?) And the best part? The wait between these chapters will be super short, so keep an eye out for them!_

 _Mind you, don't get used to the upcoming quick update schedule. I'm still a snail when it comes to writing, sorry xD But hopefully these three chapters will sustain you until my next update, whenever that shall be. Note, after these 3 chapters, next story to get an update will be Split Ends, so devoted fans of that lil fic, REJOICE!_

 _Anyway, back to specifically this chapter! Hope you liked it and hope it was worth the wait! Hope the twist on Snow White's name wasn't too weird - I changed it, one, because from the background I'm picturing for her, her parents weren't hippy enough to give her a name like Snow White, and two, it's a lil too close to the nickname our fire-loving hero has given his new lady friend, so I wanted to eliminate any possibility of confusion. Didja like the descriptions of the princesses? You may have noticed there's a couple missing… don't worry, out absentees still have a tie in with that group and there are stories behind it, ones you'll get very soon! Side note, each chapter is going to start with a lil blurb like the princesses had for this chapter, introducing a whole new clique and set of characters!_

 _Also, last names are fun in this. With a quick translation, all of them are relevant to the character in some form or another. Some are more obvious than others. I'm particularly happy with the Atigi sisters, I wonder if anyone will be able to puzzle out the punny lil joke behind that surname... :3_

 _And powers! There's a reason behind every power I've given to every character, each reason tied to their canon KH or Disney story! Some are obvious, like Axel and Elsa. Some, less so. I'll admit, coming up with Rox's ability was a bit tough, but trust me, there IS a very good reason for his gift that if you really REALLY think about it, you might be able to piece out a future scene I have in mind. Next couple chapters hold a clue. But if you can't figure it out, no worries, it's not super obvious, and besides it'll be more fun if you're surprised! Anyway, got super sidetracked! The point was, there's a reason behind every power! If you can't figure one out and you're curious, feel free to ask about a character and why I gave them a certain power. Odds are I'll tell you… UNLESS the answer could spoil a future plot point, then sorry but you're outta luck!_

 _Annnnnnnd that about wraps it up! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies, which will be sooner than you think, I swear! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!_


	8. Prefects and Perches

_~*~_  
 _Prefects and Perches_  
 _~*~_

Okay, we've covered the Princesses. Next up: the Prefects. These would be your goody-two shoes and your teachers' pets. But Prefects are on a whole other level, because the academic powers that be saw fit to grant these lucky few with some measure of authority over the rest of us peasants - a.k.a. students. If the Princesses are campus royalty, then the Prefects are the city guard. They make sure the school's rules and regulations are followed. That is to say, they enforce the law. They _are_ the law.

Let's start with Naminé Atigi. Naminé is the middle sister to Kairi and Xion, and you could say she's a bit of a child prodigy. Straight A's, top of her class... to say the girl's got smarts would be an understatement. She's also considered the beauty of the three sisters, but if you ask me, they're all pretty damn cute. On top of that, she's super sweet, the kind of person you can really open up to. Even if you've only just met her, simply talk to her for a few minutes and she'll have you feeling like you've been BFFs since preschool. Guess she's just a conversational wizard that way. No... wizard's not the right word...

She's more of a witch.

All that aside, what she really loves is her art. Lock her alone in a room with nothing but a sketch pad and some color pencils and she'll be one happy camper. She's damn good at it too, putting the likes of Picasso and Rembrandt to shame. She brings whole new meaning to the term 'lifelike art.' Maybe that's because she has the power to bring her illustrations to _actual_ living, breathing life.

Ever seen a full-size adult hippopotamus, all large and in charge and in your face, roaming freely down the halls of your school as if it were the most natural thing in the world for a hippo to do? I have, courtesy of one Naminé the Artiste Magnifique. And why, you may ask, did she decide to sketch into existence what is considered to be one of Africa's deadliest animals and let it loose on her professors and fellow classmates? Simple. She thinks hippos are, and I quote, "cuddly." To be fair, she's not wrong - the big fellah was friggin' adorable. And luckily, anything that spawns from her drawings is one hundred percent under her control, so Mr. Squishy-McLumps (as I so lovingly named the behemoth) was as docile as a golden retriever puppy.

Now onto Prefect number two: Rapunzel. She likes to paint, which is probably why she and Naminé get along so well. Birds of a feather and whatnot. But that's not all! Punzie also likes to sculpt, write, play guitar, sing, dance, act, photograph, program, knit, cook, garden, woodwork, metalwork, ventriloquize… basically everything but the goddamn kitchen sink. Though if the sink were to clog, she'd be able to fix it. That's right, you can add plumbing to that list too.

Guess that's just what happens when you place a type A personality under house arrest from the day they're born with only boredom and the internet to keep them company. See, Rapunzel has been homeschooled her entire life. Her mother was also gifted with the superfreak gene and had it rough growing up. She didn't want Rapunzel to go through the same crap she had to. Her solution? Lock the girl up and throw away the key. Overprotective much? Luckily, Yen Sid being the all seeing, all knowing entity that he is (but purports not to be, to which I call bullshit) ferreted out this injustice and sat down Mommy Dearest for a lil chat. Next thing you know, 'ol Punzie is enrolled here at Freakazoid U and happier than a kangaroo in a bouncy castle. Her mother did have one stipulation however: she wanted in on the school board. Wasn't quite ready to cut the apron strings yet, I guess.

Believe it or not, being a hobby encyclopedia in human form is not Rapunzel's superpower. No, her ability actually has to do with the only other thing that's longer than her list of pastimes: her hair. I can already picture all your dubious looks out there, but hear me out. First of all, she's got tresses for days. No, seriously. I'm convinced she could bungee jump off the moon and straight down into the belly of the Grand Canyon using her golden locks for the cord and still have plenty to spare. I have no idea how it all fits in her bedroom when she sleeps at night. And having more hair than a star cruiser full of wookies isn't even the weirdest part. She can _control_ it. Its like some shaggy kraken with prehensile tentacles that makes it home on top her head. It grabs, it wraps, it lifts, it slices, it dices, it can even make julienne fries. And it. Is. _Scary_. Trust me, Punzie is not someone you want to tangle with.

Moving along, we come to Sora. Oi, where to begin with this kid… Put it this way. If Rapunzel is a ball of energy, then Sora is the freaking sun. He's all light and warmth, butterflies and puppy dogs, caffeine highs and sugar rushes. He's a ginormous goofball and okay, maybe he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he is the nicest guy in the whole goddamn universe. That's not just an opinion, that's not just hyperbole, that is one hundred percent fact. Anyone who tells you different is lying through their crooked ass teeth. Everyone loves Sora, it's impossible not to. You'd have to be heartless to hate him. This kid tends to make buddies with everyone wherever he goes. He's a real "friendship is magic" sort. It's almost annoying, the amount of pure, unadulterated _happy_ just radiating off this dude. I don't know how his girlfriend stands it twenty-four seven.

Speaking of which, remember Kairi? Remember her love of sneaking out her parent's house at night and how her boyfriend's bedroom was her home away from home? Sora's the boyfriend. Seems these two grew up together in remote tropical paradise. Childhood sweethearts from the days of digging holes in the sandbox. And let me tell you, these two are such a cute couple, it's gross.

And the Oscar for Mutant with the Most Fitting Powers goes to (drumroll please)... Sora! No joke, this knucklehead manifested the ability to harness and wield pure light itself. He's a force for good and it's a pretty sweet deal that comes with a couple perks. For starters, Sora is, for all intents and purposes, laughing gas on legs. He is Feel Good Inc and can turn even the most stubborn of frowns upside down. Euphoria, hope, courage, a whole wide range of positive emotions at his fingertips that he can just pop into your cerebral cortex. He doesn't _force_ you to feel these things, mind you. It's more of a very strong suggestion, one you can ignore if you're feeling so inclined. But wait, there's more! Not only is the kid Captain Good Vibes, but he can also summon a blade of blinding radiant light. Picture a golden lightsaber formed of dreams, love, and happiness and you'll get the idea. Oh, and having been on the receiving end of that weapon's holy wrath, believe me when I say it hurts. Like a _bitch_.

And then there's Riku. He also grew up on that island. You know, the same one that Xion, Kairi, Naminé, Sora, and everyone else and their mom seems to come from at this point. Must be something in the water there turning that place into Superfreaks-R-Us. Anyway, Riku and Sora? Hashtag Total Best Buds 4 Life. Which is funny because Riku is the night to Sora's day. Don't get me wrong, Riku's a good guy too, he's just not the perky little ray of sunshine Sora is. What he is is Mr. Perfect Prefect. Popular, athletic, smart, all topped off with brooding good looks that have more than half the students here writing his name next to theirs inside giant, crudely drawn hearts on the wrinkled pages of their notebooks. You could practically hear the collective shatter of all those hearts the day word spread 'round campus that he was off the market.

On paper, Riku may sound like he's got it all together, but things aren't always what they appear. Dig down deep enough and you'll find it's always the ones that seem so perfect that are actually a little cracked. Our golden boy here has a dark side. His is the power to command the shadows. Bend them, weave them, yank them off the very walls and floors into very solid, very real objects. He can even breathe life into them. His latest party trick is conjuring little critters of darkness, humanoid in shape with antennae that twitch and eyes that burn like candles. Riku has dubbed these lil bastards Shadows. Originality at its finest, right? Personally, I would have gone with MidKnights.

Sometimes however, it would seem the darkness has a mind of its own. Sometimes, he hears a voice whispering to him from the shadows. Sometimes, it tells him to do things he doesn't want to do and so he doesn't. But sometimes, it's harder for him to tell it no. Apparently, the voice has a name. And that name is…

Andrew.

...wait, no, that's not right. What was it?

Anakin?

Ansel...?

 _Ansem_. That was it. Is it all in Riku's head? Or is this Ansem dude really some icky creepy-crawly from the Upside Down? Who knows. Mum's the word though. Only reason I'm privy to any of this is cuz like me, Mr. Not-So-Perfect Prefect is a patient of Doc Aq's. He's got the shrink slot right before mine and the walls here? Not as sound proof as they probably should be.

Finally, you've got Saïx. If you were to look up the term 'resting bitchface' in the dictionary, you'd find a picture of Saïx in all his scowling glory. Dude never smiles. Mayhaps it's because of that perpetual stick up his ass. He's a total boyscout that takes his duties _way_ to seriously and is drunk off his prefect power. He catches you out after curfew? Detention. Speak above a whisper in the library? Detention. Smirk, frown, cough, sneeze, blink, breathe, or even so much as exist in his esteemed, hallowed presence? You bet your sweet booty he'll find a way to slap you with that dreaded lilac slip.

He wasn't always such a royal stick in the mud. A long time ago in a backstory far, far away, he was actually halfway decent. We used to be friends. Best friends in fact, if you can believe it. We go waaaaaaaay back to the days of juice boxes and Legos. We were orphanage brats together, partners in crime. The caretakers _loathed_ us, we were always starting so much trouble. Well, more so me, but Saïx always had my back. We were hellions even as muggles, but throw mutant powers into the mix and the home was all but dying to be rid of us. They practically fell to their knees and kissed the very ground Yen Sid walked on the day he showed up to take us off their hands. Settling in at the academy, growing up with others like us, life was good… at first. But then for some reason that still remains a mystery to this day, that crusty old geezer Professor Xehanort took a special interest in Saïx. And even weirder, Saïx went along with it. Day by day, my brother from another mother slowly disappeared, replaced by Prof X's uptight mini-me. Soon he was a model citizen who wanted nothing to do with the likes of me. A grumpy, straightlaced, goody-goody ghost of his former self.

By the way, don't even think about asking him about that huge scar on his face in the shape of an X, not if you're particularly attached to your humble existence on this mortal coil. He's a bit touchy about the subject. Lotta rumors circulating as to how he got it though. Some say he learned the hard way not to run with scissors. Others say he got in a fight with a lawnmower and lost. Only I know the real story behind it. Let's just say his old man isn't going to be winning father of the year anytime soon.

Now we get to the part you've all been waiting for: his power. There's always two sides to a coin, and Saïx is no exception. One minute he's a dull, mild mannered prefect with a unhealthy hard on for the school's code of ethics, the next a switch flips and he's a bloodthirsty killing machine. Faster, stronger… tougher too. He's not invulnerable, not even close, but he sure as hell can take a punch. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even feel pain anymore when he's juiced up or if he does, he has nary a shit to give. To sweeten the pot, rapid self healing also comes part of the package deal. But the best part? He goes completely, totally and utterly off his rocker. He's got a maniacal laugh that'd make any mad scientist or super villain swell with pride. That's not even the catch though. It seems his ability is tied to the moon - more powerful (and more crazy) after sunset, bonus points if Mother Nature's nightlight is full. Not sure if that's just how it works or it it's all psychological. Cuz, you know... it's weird. Then again, I'm a Zippo lighter personified, so who am I to judge?

And that about wraps it up for the Gold Star Sticker Brigade. Some of them got their issues, but when it really comes down to it, they're just a bunch of good eggs doing their part to keep everyone on the straight and narrow. But you gotta remember, with great power comes great responsibility. They're not just around to throw the book at us hooligans if we step out of line. They're also here to protect us, keep us safe. Because in a school packed to the brim with deadly and sometimes mildly unhinged superfreaks, there's no doubt we're gonna need the protection. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

Boy am I glad I'm not in their shoes.

* * *

Naminé stared at me, one eyebrow cocked as she waited for me to say something.

One hand flew to my chest, fingers splayed. "Moi?" I bat my eyelashes. "I would never."

"Sure," her grin turned wry before she shifted her attention over to Snow. "Forget every word you've heard out of this miscreant's mouth."

"Hey!"

Cheap shot.

Ignoring my outburst, she flashed Snow her patented smile - guaranteed to warm even the most frozen of hearts or your munny back. "Hi, my name is Naminé. It's an absolute pleasure to finally meet you."

There was a pause as Snow hesitated, staring at the hand Naminé had stretched out to her.

"It's okay," Naminé reassured, her voice soft. "I know all about your gift. Don't worry, I'll be just fine."

Snow gave her a tiny frown, then glanced down at her own gloved hand. She squinted, as if looking for holes or other breaches in her personal defenses. It must have passed inspection for she finally, albeit gingerly and with a deep breath, took the prefect's hand in her own and shook it. "Elsa."

"Nams here is the resident welcoming committee," I piped in. "You know, a friendly face for the newbies. Proof that we're not all monsters here." I smirked. "Not on the outside, at least."

Eyes never leaving Snow, Naminé said with a cavity inducing grin, "Luckily, Axel is enough of a monster for all of us, both inside and out."

I shrugged. "Can't argue with facts."

Don't let her angelic aura fool you. Naminé's default setting may be sweetheart, but girl can be savage when she wants to be.

But her jabs at me were harmless. I knew they all came from a place of love. She was just teasing to keep up appearances. We were, after all, on opposite sides of the law. She couldn't be seen fraternizing with the enemy. But she and I, we were on good terms.

At least, I _hoped_ we were. Anyone who can pop your nose out of existence using only a doodle and an eraser is not someone whose bad side you want to get on. To be fair, I'm not sure if she can actually go that far with her powers, but I'd rather not be the one to find out. I'm a fan of my nose. It's as cute as a fucking button and I'd like to keep it.

"Anyway," Naminé clapped her hands together, "I'm so glad to see you out of your room at last, Elsa. If you have a moment, I'd like to-"

That's as far as she got before she was interrupted by a dark, barking blur that came out of nowhere, rushed past her and hurtled straight into Snow. True to her namesake, a puff of cool, white powder erupted from her as she yelped in surprise and stumbled back a step, but managed to stay upright. With another bark, it proceeded to leap up and slobber all over her face.

Now that it had slowed down enough to be visible to the naked eye, the blur turned out to be a dog. A big, but lean dog with scruffy black fur, gangling legs, and a face only a mother could love. He was a happy fellah, his tail wagging faster than a hummingbird's wings. He'd taken a spot between all three of us, center of attention, spinning around to grace each of us with several loud woofs.

Giggling, Naminé leaned down to pat him on the head. "What a cute puppy!" She looked to Snow, her fingers moving to scratch behind his ear now as she did so. Panting, the mutt closed his eyes and leaned into it. Oh yeah. He was in doggy heaven. "Is he yours? Because I have to let you know, we normally don't allow pets on campus."

Fido's ears perked up, his head turned and he froze, eyes zeroed in on something in the lunchroom crowd. Then he released another gleeful wuf before crouching low to the ground, muscles tense, tail high in the air and going like a windshield wiper possessed.

Still in the process of mopping off the slimey remnants from our new pal's initial greeting, Snow shook her head with a snort. "No, he's not."

Naminé tipped her head to one side. "Then where did he c-?"

"Got you!" A new voice cried out from the throng of lunch-goers.

Faster than you can say 'Scooby Snack' the dog bolted, disappearing amongst the mixture of dining tables and our classmates legs just as a second blur appeared from the opposite direction, pouncing into the now empty space Man's Best Friend had been not just half a tick ago. It crashed into the floor with a _thud_ and a grunt. Then it rolled over onto its back, revealing itself to be a now rather dazed-looking boy with spiky brown hair.

I crossed my arms and sniggered down at him, shaking my head. "Always gotta make an entrance, huh, Sora?"

He groaned, a hand going to his forehead. Then he shook it off and beamed back up at me from the floor. "What can I say? Can't help showing off." His eyes flicked over to Snow. "Oh! You're the new girl!" His smile threatened to split his face in two as it stretched even wider. Still making no move to get up, he gave her a big wave. "Hi New Girl!"

Eyebrows knitting together, she mirrored the gesture weakly. I didn't blame her. She was probably trying to figure out if he was a student or a nuthouse escapee. A question many people found themselves pondering upon first meeting Sora.

"What's the deal with the dog?" Naminé placed a hand on one hip as she too stared down at him.

"Dunno," he shrugged, taking the hand I offered to help him back onto his feet. Dusting himself off, he said, "He doesn't seem to belong to anyone. Think it's a stray that wandered in here by accident. It's just been running around like a chicken with its head cut off, yapping at everyone it sees. I've been trying to catch him all day!"

Nams pursed her lips to one side and looked around. Rover was nowhere to be seen, not with all the students packed in here, providing him near impenetrable cover. But you could definitely still hear him. "Can't Cindy help you?"

His shoulders slumped. "She tried, but it didn't work for some reason!"

"Oh ho!" I smirked over in the direction of the Princess's table. "Are somebody's powers on the fritz? Finally met her match? Outsmarted by a widdle doggo?"

Naminé tapped a finger to her chin. "Maybe it's because the dog won't stay still."

"S'pose it could be hard for the fleabag whisperer to lay the whammy on a moving target," I admitted with a harrumph.

There was another excited bork as Spot burst back out of the crowd a couple yards away from us. His clumsy feet did not nail the landing and he smashed into the floor face first, tumbling and rolling a few times before sliding to a stop. Then he immediately perked up, panting and still in high spirits before scampering off again.

"What a goofy dog," Sora laughed, clasping his hands behind his head. "Welp, duty calls! Laters, guys!" He grinned at us, then at Snow. "Laters, New Girl!" With that, he charged after the mutt once more.

With a tiny a laugh, Nams looked back to Snow. "Now, where were we? Ah, yes." She pulled out a piece of paper from her messenger bag. "This is your schedule here. We-" Yet again, her words stopped short. I had sidled up to peek over her shoulder at the page. She glanced at me out of the corner of narrowed eyes, shifting the sheet out of my line of sight. "Um, excuse me."

I smirked. "You're excused."

What can I say, I'm a Nosy Nancy. It's in my blood. There's no fighting it, so why even try?

Her eyelids drooped and she shook her head, handing the paper to Snow. "We try to keep the schedules light for our first years so as not to overwhelm them as they adjust to their new environment," she explained. She was keeping it very profesh and was using her prefect voice, which was somewhere between friendly flight attendant and mama bear. "I'm in most of the same courses as you, so feel free to come to me if you have any questions. There is one session you and I don't share, but Rapunzel's in that one. She's a prefect, like me. She'll be happy to help."

"Punzie's the one with the hair." I pointed at my own mane. "You can't miss her."

Snow blinked. "...the hair?"

"You'll know it when you see it. Trust me."

Raising a finger, Naminé rattled off, "Dining hall hours are seven to nine for breakfast, eleven to one lunch, and five to seven dinner. Curfew is at ten on weekdays, but I recommend being in your room by nine forty-five to be on the safe side. On the weekend-"

Snow snerked, one hand darting up to cover her lips. Nams' eyebrows shot up, then she looked behind herself to discover that I had been making an extravagant show of mimicking her hand gestures and miming her lil speech, complete with ridiculous faces. I hastily shoved my hands into my pocket, looked away and began to whistle.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

With a sigh, Naminé said, "Perhaps I should show you around now. The school grounds are massive, so we have a lot to cover. Follow me."

She turned, shouldering past me and began to make her way towards the cafeteria's double-doored exit. Snow's gaze met mine and I bowed low with a sweeping flourish. "After you, M'lady." Her eyes crinkled as she moved to follow her tour guide with me only a few steps behind. We did not get far however before a pair of legs suddenly shot out, blocking the aisle like a boom barrier and stopping Nams dead in her tracks.

One look would tell you that the owner of said legs was the pinnacle of the three Bads. Bad Boy, Bad News, and Badass. From his untamed hair to his leather jacket to his strappy, steel-toed boots, dude was obviously a fan of the color black and wasn't afraid to show it. He was leaning back in his chair with his legs stretched out and crossed casually at the ankles, feet propped up by another seat on the opposite side of the walkway. He folded his arms together as he chewed some gum, watching Nams through half-lidded golden eyes.

She exhaled heavily with a small scowl. "Can I help you, Vanitas?"

"Wanna pass? Gotta pay the toll." He began to blow a bubble.

"Do I dare even ask?" she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. First me, now Vanitas. Two douchebags for the price of one. Must be her lucky day. At last, she tossed a hand up in defeat. "Fine, what's the toll?"

He let the bubble pop and flashed a wicked smirk. Then he puckered up and made kissy noises at her.

"Ugh," she huffed in disgust and marched forward, shoving his legs out of her way none too gently. She called behind her, "Not in a million years."

A scoff escaped him and he jeered, "Be too soon for my tastes, cupcake."

Brrr. Some serious cold shoulder going on there. Those two don't seem to like each other very much, huh?

You'd never guess they were hooking up on the QT.

Shocker, am I right? Talk about opposites attract!

But see? Being a Nosy Nancy pays off. I've got more dirt than a dump truck.

Worrying her lower lip between her teeth, Snow stared after Naminé then glanced down at Vanitas as he blew another slow bubble. He arched an eyebrow at her before letting the gum burst again. "Take a picture, toots."

Her back stiffened and she hurried to catch up with Naminé. I said nothing to him, just rapped my knuckles against his as I strolled past.

Vani and I tend travel in the same circles.

"Don't mind him," I muttered to Snow as I stepped up beside her. "He may seem like a jackass at first, but once you get to know him… well, he's still a jackass. But beneath that jackass-errific exterior beats a heart of gold."

She didn't say anything, just gave a small nod, eyes downcast as her fingers toyed with her braid.

I frowned. Seemed Snow had lost her voice since last night. She hadn't had much to say, not since Nams showed up anyway. Just not a people person, I guess. She was probably drowning in all the new faces and once again re-thinking her decision to leave the room today.

Naminé was waiting by the door as we approached. She flashed that candy-coated smile of hers again and gestured to the opening. "Right this way, we'll start in just a moment." Snow stepped over the threshold and out into the corridor. I moved to follow, but Naminé suddenly stood in my way. "Not you, loverboy," she said, jabbing a finger into my chest and forcing me to take a step back.

"Wha- I- I'm not-" I said with all the eloquence of a turnip.

The _audacity_ of this woman!

"Save it. I have a job to do, and I can't do it with you hanging around being a nuisance. You can flirt later," she chided. I tried not to snort at the sight of someone half my size trying to order me around.

Instead I puffed my chest up, crossed my arms, and stared down my nose at her. "I resent the insinuation. I have nothing but honorable intentions."

"Mmm-hmm." She didn't look convinced.

"Besides, what am I supposed to do now?"

"Don't you have class or something?"

My eyelids drooped. "Do you know me but at all?"

"Fine then, go, I don't know…" her hand flicked through the air a couple times. "...set something on fire I guess."

The corners of my lips stretched slyly. "Your wish is my command."

"Wait," she snapped. Nams pressed her mouth into a thin line as she looked up at me, unamused. I set my phasers to stun and beamed back at her. With a sigh, she started rummaging in her bag and pulled out one of her sketchbooks. Flipping through the pages, she stopped somewhere in the middle, reached a hand in and pulled. I wrinkled my forehead. From the pages of that itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny artpad, she soon had produced a full-scale and fully functioning fire extinguisher. She gave it to me with a grunt.

I blinked a couple times. "You had one of these already drawn up and ready to go?"

"I have _twenty_. I know you," she shrugged. "Just… don't go too crazy and please clean up afterwards."

Shifting the extinguisher to one hand, I used the other to salute her. "Roger, roger." I then glanced past her to lock eyes with Snow, who was still waiting patiently in the hallway. I grinned, "Catch you on the flipside. Try not to miss me too much."

She struggled to suppress her smile, raising her chin a fraction. "No worries there, Ethel."

 _There's_ my girl Friday.

I watched the two of them walk off together, Naminé talking animatedly, already pointing out the many sights, landmarks and wonders the institute had to offer. When they turned a corner and I lost sight of them, I looked down at the bright red canister within my hands.

Welp. You heard the lady.

Time to go set some shit on fire.

* * *

At Yen Sid's Institute for the Gifted, there are many delights to experience, curiosities to behold. Kicking it off lightly, there's the school store that is by and large student run. It has been lovingly nicknamed the Bazaar due to its location in an open air courtyard situated towards the center of campus. There, you can purchase school supplies, snacks, caffeine-laced beverages and other such necessities. There are also a few off the menu items that are available for purchase if you murmur the right words to the right people. You know, real black market shit. We're talking smokes, booze… classy, high end periodicals for the furtherment of one's anatomical education… all that good stuff up for grabs! For the right price, of course.

For you adventurous types, there's the woodlands that surround three quarters of the campus. We're not exactly sure how big it is, no one's ever fully explored it all, but it's gotta be at least 100 acres. One of the more prominent features of the forest is Pride Rock. A steep hill with an even steeper drop overlooking a small lake. Many a idiots have proven their mettle by making the leap from its tipy top to the fathoms below. It's become a right of passage of sorts. Then there's Grandmother Willow. The largests, oldest, gnarliest tree that sleeps in the deepest, darkest part of the woods. It's said if you seek her out after midnight, you can hear her whispering to you from amidst her coiling branches. Few are brave enough to make the perilous journey after dark, even fewer willing speak of their excursion when they return… _if_ they return. And let's not forget about the Cave of Wonders. Sort of a tunnel of love, naturally formed and romantic as all freaking hell. It's hard to put into words exactly what the inside is like. Let's just say all that glitters is not gold. Trust me, I can attest to the wonders therein. Total date night spot.

There's something for everybody at the academy, even all you conspiracy nuts like me out there. We all know this old place has a basement, despite no one being allowed down there. We even know there is a subbasement beyond that. But legend tells of an even deeper layer. A _sub_ -subbasement, if you will, and they say it's a total freaky-deaky house of horrors down there. A grimy decrepit crypt full of bugs the size of great danes and bones with rotting meat still clinging to 'em. Take a wrong turn down there and you may even find yourself face to face with enraged ghosts of long dead and forgotten mutants from yesteryear.

They call it the Underworld.

But really, who'd believe in a silly old wives' tale like that? Bit far fetched, even for me.

Regardless of what you're into, everyone has their favorite spot here. The place you go to just chillax with some friends or be alone with your thoughts. For me, that spot's the school clock tower. The tallest and oldest structure on campus, the focal point around which the rest of the buildings gather. The thing is definitely from another century, all colorful and gaudy like opening night at a Barnum & Bailey circus. It wears four gargantuan bronze bells like a crown and their chimes can be heard for miles. If you're sitting on the top ledge just above its king-size clock face, you'll bear witness to the best damn view of sunset in the whole wide world.

 _If_ you can get to the top. The tower is technically off limits to students.

But my friends and I, we have our ways.

And so it was, after a satisfying and legally sanctioned afternoon of setting many a things ablaze (including the fire extinguisher that had been so generously offered up as tribute), that I was to be found perched upon that high ledge, enjoying a visit from the nicotine fairy. The Marlboro hung from my mouth as I leaned back on my palms watching the daystar near the end of its slow descent. Those blizzards that had been raging all week seemed to have settled down for good and this was the first time the sky had been clear in days. I wasn't going to miss the show.

The whole campus and beyond could be seen from up here. Mostly it was just forest as far as the eye could see except for the north where one single, lonely road sprouted from the main entrance and trailed off into the distance. There were still clumps of snow lying around here and there, but most of it had melted by now, the leftover slush glimmering in the golden glow of approaching twilight.

It was actually kind of pretty.

Crap, I must be going soft in my old age.

"You're gonna get lung cancer from those, you know."

Xion's words dragged me out of my musings. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see her and Roxas emerge from around the corner to come join me in our usual front row seats to the final curtains of the day.

Tendrils of smoke curled out of my nostrils as I pulled the cigarette away from my lips and smirked. "Can the devil even get lung cancer?" I ask, drawing one leg up towards my chest as she sat down on the ledge too, leaving a spot between us.

Rox snorted at that as he also took a seat, filling the gap in the middle. "Oh so, what, you're saying you're the devil now?"

"Hey, I got the fire and brimstone part down at least." I stretched my arm out in front of me, propping it on one knee as I tapped away some ash. "By the way, if I ever catch either of you smoking, I'll smack you so hard upside the head you'll feel it for your next ten birthdays, you hear me?"

"Wow, who knew Satan was such a hypocrite," Xion rolled her eyes with a faint smile. "Not that I'm saying that I want to, but even if I did, what makes you think you could stop me?"

I didn't respond right away, instead frowning as I watched the crimson bands of light sprawl over the horizon. After letting the silence stretch for a bit, I asked, "Ever wonder why the sun sets red?"

The kiddos blinked at each other. Then Xion shook her head as Roxas said slowly, "No… why?"

"Cuz I fucking told it to, that's why."

Xion all but burst with laughter at that. "Liar! Even if that were true, how does that have anything to do with anything?"

"Tell me," I said, eyes still locked on that big, dimming light bulb in the sky, "what's the sun made of?"

"Gas," Xion answered almost immediately, then shrugged. "Plasma, really. Mostly hydrogen and helium, but also a little bit of carbon, nitrogen, oxy-"

"Ahhhnt," I made a buzzer noise, reaching my arm behind Roxas to flick Xion in the ear. "Wrong. Would contestant numero dos care to venture a guess?"

He hesitated, his brow furrowing. "Um… fire?"

"Ding, ding. We have a winner!" I grinned, tapping a finger to my nose. "Bonus round now, champ. What am I?" I asked, jabbing a thumb into my chest.

"A dork?" Xion interjected, sticking her tongue out at me as Roxas smothered a chuckle behind his hand.

My eyelids drooped. "No."

Alright, fine, _yes_ , but that is so _not_ the point.

"I'm the lord and frigging master of fire, twerp." I pointed a digit skyward, "Meaning that big flaming orb up there is my bitch. So, moral of the story, halfpints?" Shoving the cigarette between my teeth, I flashed them a crooked half-smirk. "Do as I say or I'll drop the motherfucking sun on your asses. Got it memorized?"

Crickets. Then another explosion of laughter, this time from the both of them.

Somehow I got the feeling they weren't taking me seriously.

Just a hunch.

"Sure… sure, okay," Xion wheezed out. "I won't smoke and in the interest of not shattering your fragile male ego, we'll say it's cuz you told us not to."

I sniffed indignantly. "Thank you, from the bottom of my fragile male ego."

"Same here," Rox chirped. "Scout's honor, you won't ever _catch_ me smoking." He let out a grunt as I slugged him in the shoulder. "Kidding, kidding! There's nothing _to_ catch, promise."

"Damn well better not be," I grumbled.

Having subsided into mere giggles now, Xion swung her dangling feet as she shot me some side eye. "So. That girl you ditched us for at lunch. Spill."

I scratched a spot behind my ear and stared at the sunset as if I were watching gray paint dry on a slightly grayer wall. "Dunno what you're talking about."

Roxas snerked. "C'mon, Axel. You practically tore a hole in the space-time continuum running across the cafeteria to get to the new girl."

"Ghost blonde hair? Blue eyes? Some serious va-va-voom going on?" Xion ticked off on her fingers, waggling her eyebrows at the last one. "Ring any bells?"

"Maybe a jingle or two," I shrugged, slowing inhaling more smoke into my lungs.

Xion sighed, muttering, "Like pulling teeth."

"Dude," Rox gave me a pointed look. "It's not that hard. You. Her. Fill in the blank. Go."

I raised an eyebrow. "Sorry squirts, but if you're itching for a birds n' the bees talk, I'm saving that one til you're both a lil bit older."

She scrunched up her face. "Ew, no. First off, just how old do you think we are?"

"You'll always be my babies," I cooed, pinching Roxas's precious chubby widdle cheek. He socked me in the side of the rib cage.

They grow up so fast.

"Second off," Xion shook her head, "We just want to know stuff like, um… like how do you know her?"

"Oh. Simple enough." I smirked at them. "I stole her car."

"You what?!" they exclaimed in perfect unison. Neat trick. Wonder if they practice it in their free time.

"It's okay. She was in it at the time."

Roxas frowned. "So you also… kidnapped her?"

"Nah, she was cool with it. And then we beat up some carjackers. Real lowlife thugs, you know? We even gift wrapped them for the police." I snapped my fingers. "I think that makes us super heroes. Maybe she and I should become a crime-fighting dynamic duo. Ooo, or start one of them justice leagues. I could rock the hell out of a cape and costume." My eyes narrowed. "But no tights. I draw the line at that shit. This ain't no fucking Swan Lake. And don't even get me started on the underoos. Trust me, no one wants to see that. I-"

My words came to a screeching halt at the blank stares they were giving me. I rubbed the nape of my neck, "Uh… heh… what were we talking about again?"

One corner of Roxas's lips twitched upward. "Your new girlfriend, Super Tangent Man."

I scoffed. "She's not- listen, we just… fought a little crime together." And I may or may not have laid a lil sweet, sweet sugar on her. _They_ didn't know that though. "I wouldn't exactly call that flirting."

With a snort, Xion hunched forward so she could better look me in the eye. "You kidding? Given your MO, that may as well be roses and candlelight. What's her name?"

I huffed and flopped backward, my arms folding behind my head to cushion it from the concrete. Not gonna lie, wasn't a fan of this line of questioning. I gnawed on my cigarette as I stared straight up, watching the thin trickle of smoke drifting up into the darkening sky. "You got such a crush on her, you go ask her."

"I'm not the one with a crush," she sing-songed.

I felt Rox kick my shoe with his own. "So tell us about her. What's she like?"

"Hmmm, welp… she's got two arms, two legs. A pair of eyes, a nose… lessee what else… oh, get this. She has elbows. And nine fingers, at least. Maybe ten, but don't quote me on that."

"Axel…"

Tossing a hand up, I said, "What? You asked what she was like. She's very person-like. That may in fact be because she's a person. One you can go interact with and get all the juicy deets from yourself."

"Oh wow," I heard Xion chuckle. "You _really_ like this one."

"Do not."

"Please. You're patient zero of the hyperverbal disease. You have something to say about everything. It's when you clam up about something or some _one_ that we know we've hit a soft spot."

Oh brother. "Thank you, Dr Phil."

Roxas practically crowed, "You're right! This is exactly how he got with Meg too, remember?"

"Hey now, you leave Meg out of th-"

A flash of copper red hair and brown eyes suddenly filled my vision above, too close for comfort. "Sup guys! What-"

"Sweet Zombie Jesus!" I snapped, startled into sitting back up. "Damn it, Peter, boundaries! We talked about this!"

We had the extraordinary _dis_ pleasure of having been joined by a fourth person. A tall wisp of a boy that looked like he'd snap like a twig if you so much as breathed on him. He jumped back at my outburst and straight off the ledge, where the laws of physic would argue he should have had a one way ticket to Splatsville on the pavement several stories below. Instead he just floated there in midair.

If you hadn't guessed, defying the laws of gravity was this kid's own special brand of x-gene hocus pocus.

A bucktooth grin spread across his face. "My bad, man. Didn't surprise you too bad, did I?"

"Nah. Left arm's feeling numb, but that's normal, right?" I deadpanned, using a bit more force than necessary to stub out my mostly spent cigarette on the concrete next to my seat, shooting the rugrats a look. They stifled some sniggers into their fists.

"For sure, awesomesauce!" he beamed, giving me the thumbs up. Then he tapped his knuckles together. "So… Tink n' I were wonderin' if maybe, possibly we could also-"

"Shoo, fly, don't bother me," I cut him off, waving a dismissive hand.

He zipped around like a paper airplane, looping behind me and popping his head up between me and Roxas. Palms pressed together and held up just under his chin, he whined, "Aw c'mon, please? Tons of room up here, we could share-"

I planted a hand on his face and shoved him away. "I said buzz off, pest."

"But-"

"Get outta here, Rocketeer."

"If ya'd just-"

"Bye bye, Tweety Pie."

With a growl, he whooshed past me, nearly knocking me off my perch. He whirled around to face all three of us, stamping his foot on the nonexistent ground beneath him and tugging the hood of his green jacket up over his head with a huff. "Fine!" Into the hoodie's breast pocket, he said, "We're outta here, Tink. This spot blows." He stuck his thumbs in his ears, wriggled his fingers, and razzed his tongue at us. "Wouldn't want to hang out with these lame buttheads anyway!" On that oh-so-clever final note, he torpedoed elsewhere.

Jeeze, that kid needs to learn to grow the fuck up.

Just because the brat can fly, he thinks the highest point on campus should be his roost. But the clock tower's our turf, end of story. We were here first, fair and square. Didn't stop him from trying to weasel his way in from time to time. Which in turn, didn't stop me from chasing him off with the metaphorical flyswatter. And back and forth it went, so on and so forth, a cycle without end. You'd think he'd know by now not to be such a crybaby about it.

"You know," Xion said, eyes crinkling, "it wouldn't kill you to be a little nicer to Peter."

I turned up my nose. "I humbly disagree."

"Pfffft. You never humbly do anything."

My eyes rolled. "Alright then, I _un_ humbly disagree."

She sighed and shook her head. "Unhumbly is not a word."

"There's no pleasing you."

Rox slapped my shoulder. "Still, he's not wrong. It's huge up here," he spread his arms wide, indicating our domain atop of the tower. "Would it be so wrong to share the space?"

I reached for my pack of Marlboros. "Sharing is for toddlers and Sunday confessionals. Besides, it's too much fun pissing him off. I..." The words died in my throat as I frowned, patting all my pockets. I released a snarl. "That little shit swiped my smokes."

He cracked up at that. "Serves you right, you big bully."

I tried to silence him with a withering glare. No such luck. If anything, he only laughed harder. I hissed out a harsh breath. "Who's side you on, anyway?"

Leaping up onto his feet, Roxas planted his fists on his hips and thrust his chest out. "The side of truth, justice, and-"

"Siddown, twerp," I yanked on his shirt, forcing him to unceremoniously fall back onto his rear. Xion was doing her best to contain a fit of giggles behind both her hands. "There's only one superhero here, and hint hint, it's not you."

He turned his head, smiling at the third amigo. "Wow, Xion, when did you become a superhero?"

I cuffed him lightly on the back of the head and they both just broke down into laughter again. One corner of my lips turned up despite myself.

Peter may have been as annoying as a buzzing mosquito just begging to be squished under thumb, but I hadn't failed to notice that he'd just done me a bit of a favor. Inadvertently, of course. God forbid the brat do a good deed on purpose out of the kindness of his own heart. Regardless, he'd played distraction and gotten the kiddies off my back about Snow, for which I was grateful.

In the interest of keeping the subject-change ball rolling, when the cackling at last settled down, I said, "So I hear Professor Cueball was a no show in class for you two today."

Xion bit back a grin. "You mean Instructor Xehanort?"

"That'd be the one."

"Yeah, it was weird," Roxas nodded. "He's been late before, we all know how busy he is with his private research. But he's never just totally bailed on a session before."

Xion pulled her knees up, hugging them to her chest. "Word is no one's seen him since yesterday. It's like he's just fallen off the face of the planet."

"Huh." I scratched the tip of my nose in thought, then shrugged. "Old coot probably just wandered off from his shuffleboard group after a bout of dementia. He'll turn up sooner or later."

"You think?"

"Yup. He's most likely just gotten himself lost in the attic or the dreaded verboten west wing, caught up in a lively debate with a suit of armor or trying to figure out where he misplaced his dentures. Or his Viagra."

She scrunched up her nose with a tiny smile. "Ew, gross, who would he need Viagra for?" I opened my mouth to respond, but she was already raising a hand to quiet me. "On second thought, don't answer that. I'd rather not hear what your twisted imagination would come up with, thanks."

"Smart girl," I chuckled before tapping a finger to my temple. "It's a horror show in here. You do not want to peek behind the curtain, believe me."

We continued to chat about everything and nothing, laughing about stupid crap and roughhousing on our precarious seats, heedless of the treacherous drop below us. Just like we always did, just like every other sunset in the past. Just like we planned to keep doing every sunset in the future too.

If only we knew how few sunsets we had left together.

Speaking of which, you're probably wondering where all that doom and gloom was that I promised you at the end my little midnight adventure. Worry not, my friends, it's coming. In fact, it'd already begun, it was just going on behind the scenes. Hiding beneath the surface, unseen as it grew and spread, devouring everything in its path, like a cancer. It would be a while still before it finally emerged from the shadows to rear its ugly head, but the warning signs were there to see if anyone had bothered to look. By the time anyone even had a clue, it was already too late.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. No need to fret over the distant (yet not so distant) future just yet.

Afterall, I still, as I would soon discover, had to survive that very night.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Dun dun duuuuuuun! I'm such a doom and gloom tease xD And see, see, you didn't have to wait long for this update either! Next one will be quite soon as well!_

 _Once again, MUCH praise and MUCH worship to the beautiful and breathtaking **Arisa Kiryuu** for being a vunderbar beta for this chapter! Thank you, my lil cabbage! Also, special thanks to **Arisa Kiryuu** and **Amarxlen** for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews!_

 _Gwah, sorry, the Prefects section got a bit out of control lengthwise Dx It's my intention to keep those little intro/clique descriptions short, but once I start writing, it's hard to stop sometimes. Then afterwards it feels impossible to cut anything out. Plus, you know Ax is gonna have a lot to say about CERTAIN people *cough*Saïx*cough* Hope it was still a fun read, even if it was a bit of a marathon!_

 _And what Axel-centric fic is truly complete without a clocktower scene? Don't care if it's possibly even clich_ _é_ _at this point, had to do it, so you can deal. Plus, I got to put my own little twist on why the sun sets red :3 that might be my fave bit in the whole chapter, it was a lot of fun to write. And also, fun fact, it was the first part I wrote for this chapter!_

 _Anywhosel, thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments, friendly feedback, or are just liking the story thus far, please make my day by letting me know in a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such delightful platitudes!_


	9. Loners and Late Night

_~*~_  
 _Loners and Late Night_  
 _~*~_

Now let's take a closer look at a rather unique group. A set of individuals who do not really hang out together, might not even necessarily like each other, but still fall under the same category due to a shared lifestyle. These are the ones that just seem a little... _off_. Like that one student over there that always eats lunch by themselves. The outcasts, the undesirables, the personae non gratae. The ones you wouldn't even so much as poke with a ten-foot pole. The social pariahs.

The Loners.

Some of them you'd never even guess their standing (or lack thereof) in society just by the look of them. Take Belle for example. A charming mademoiselle who hails from the land of berets and baguettes. A+ name choice there, cuz the girl is smokin'. Her dad is some crackpot inventor who spent most of his life trying to cook up the next great thing to revolutionize some industry or another, but kept coming up with dud after dud after dud. But like Edison, he didn't call it repeated failure, he just called it finding 10,000 different ways it didn't work. All it took was finding the one way that it did. And when he found it, hoo boy, did he hit the jackpot. He became a billionaire and household name practically overnight. So you can imagine when Belle enrolled here how she must have looked like the goose that laid the golden egg to the Princesses. Beautiful? Rich? French? She checked off all the right boxes and they immediately claimed her as one of their own. But they soon learned that you shouldn't always judge a book by its lovely cover.

Here's the thing. Behind that fair facade, Belle is… well, I'm afraid she's rather odd. She's a bit of a chatterbox, you see, but not so much when it comes to her fellow human beings. No, she's more likely to get into rousing discourse with a desk clock, or this candlestick, or that teacup.

To make it worse, she's telekinetic. That's right, she moves shit with her _mind_. So _how_ exactly does that make it worse? Think about it - suddenly her inanimate friends can become quite animated. Just last week, she got busted for being out after curfew just so she could break into the kitchen and use her powers to put on a big song and dance number with all the silverware and fine china. I wish I could say that was only the first time.

To be fair, I don't think the chick is certifiably insane or anything. It's not like she expects the household appliances to talk back. It's just that before her ol' papa hit the bigtime, he had a bit of a reputation as a flop and a loon, which did nothing for Belle's social life. Growing up a rather lonely child, girl had to deal somehow. So what if she shoots the breeze with a feather duster from time to time? There are by far worse ways she could have coped. Needless to say, Belle's stint with the Princesses was rather short lived, given she turned out to be not really "their sort of people." But I get the feeling the breakup was mutual. She seems happier going it on her own again.

Shifting gears, let's now discuss the curious case of Alice Liddell. At the tender age of seven, this dainty English miss is the youngest mutant to grace the halls of this absurd little academy. Tis a tragic tale, this one. Seems her folks kicked the bucket not too long ago in a devastating house fire. Little one took it hard, for now she does naught but stare off into space, never so much a peep out of her. I tried to cheer her up once, but tyke didn't even crack a smile. Doubt she knew I was there.

Between her brain being out on perpetual holiday, an older brother who's all she's got left but hardly gives her the time of day, and not one soul here anywhere near her age, is it any real surprise the kid has no playmates? Only things that come close are this pair of plushies that are with her everywhere she goes. One a white rabbit in waistcoat, the other this creepy as all motherflippin' hell purple cat with pink stripes. Though come to think of it, the feline has been MIA lately. Then there's the Princesses, but it'd be a stretch to call them "friends." They think her adorable, like a doll. Treat her like one too. Playing dress up, doing makeovers, you name it. Alice doesn't seem to mind though. Then again, she doesn't seem to be quite all there.

But if she's not there, where oh where could our dear Alice be? This is where her ability comes in. Illusion manipulation. Making you see what is not there. Basically, nothing is what it is because everything is what it isn't. And what it is, it is no longer. What it's not, it now is. Clear as mud, right? Put it another way. She fabricates a whole world around you and from what I understand, it's a total trip. We're talking full on eight straights of fucked up, taste the rainbow psychedelic trip. In her world, animals are proper gents decked in dapper suits, flowers wax lyrical, and teapots perform symphonies. Truly a land of wonder. Is it any wonder, then, that Alice has gotten herself lost in it? That'd be my guess anyhow. Thought she couldn't use her own powers on herself, did you? Think again. And when reality handed her lemons, I don't blame her for finding a new reality. Okay, maybe it is a bit bonkers. So what?

I like to think we're all mad here.

Speaking of mad, our next outsider takes the cake. His name is Stitch. At least, that's what we think it is, based on that one time he said "I am Stitch." However, his english is not exactly top notch. He speaks (and I use that in the _loosest_ sense of the term) twenty different languages and counting, among which I've heard Spanish, Chinese, Hawaiian, and some gibberish that I don't even think is really a language. It gets hard to follow with his tendency to jumble all those different lingos together. So when he declared "I am Stitch", he could have been saying his name… or he could have just been trying to tell us he was hungry in that bizarro made-up vernacular of his.

Now his story is a big ol' question mark. He just showed up outta nowhere one day. Word around campus is he's a foreign exchange student, but no one really seems to know where from. The faculty act like they have the inside scoop, but honestly? I'd bet my beloved guyliner they're as much in the dark as the rest of us are.

Truth is I don't even think he's actually a mutant. What I believe we have here is a close encounter of the third kind. That's right, my compadres, I'm talking aliens. Don't laugh, I've seen the antennae. But he only has them _sometimes_. Dude's also got four arms. _Sometimes_. See, Stitch here is a shapeshifter. Play-doh class. You know… open a can of imagination? You can make anything with that crap, and same goes for Stitch. I mean, the guy prefers to walk around in the form of this little blue koala-but-not-really sorta thing, for crying out loud! Never seen his regular human form… if he even has one. I'm onto you, spaceman. Or maybe... spacedog? He does like to walk around on all fours from time to time. And scratch his ear with his foot. And eat things he shouldn't. Yeah, he's a weird one. Probably why most peeps tend to steer clear.

Saving the best for last, we come to Adam. Adam is… well…

How about this. Take a journey with me now and you can just see for yourself.

* * *

You know that feeling when you're woken up in the middle of the night to your whole room quaking as if giants are playing hopscotch next door while the soul rending roars and howls of some unholy monstrosity wrought from nightmares tear through the air, leaving goosebumps on your flesh?

No? Huh. Must be just another one of the many _perks_ of living at Yen Sid's twisted little nuthouse of a school.

Lucky me.

"Mother ape ass!" I hissed as I jolted awake and fell flailing out of bed, crashing face first into the garbage dump that was my floor. I groggily pushed myself up, rubbing my head as I watched the walls around me give another violent shake followed by the distant, haunting sounds of snarls and guttural growls. "Shit. Again?" I sighed, then hopped up to my feet and charged out the door.

I skidded to a stop in the middle of the dark hallway, eyes swiftly picking up every detail. Several doors around me were open, some enough for other students in their PJs to poke a head out and look around, others merely cracked an inch so an eye could peek through. They were all curious as to what was going down, even though they already knew. We all did. Curious, yes. But not brave enough to actually leave the relative safety of their bedrooms. Nope, only I had the honor of being so bold.

Or maybe the term I was looking for was stupid. Eh, I always get the two words mixed up.

Another thunderous bellow could be heard, closer now. My head whipped in its direction as some of the other students squeaked and slammed their doors shut. I took off down the corridor, running directly towards the source. I burst through the doors at the end of the hall and into one of the academy's numerous common rooms, where I immediately had to put on the brakes.

It was either that or suffer crashing headlong into a tangled mess with Riku.

I stopped just barely in time, the rug rumpling beneath my feet. The prefect had his back to me but as I came banging through the doors, he spun around and jumped back. One look at him and it was pretty obvious that he too had been rudely awoken from his beauty rest. He was in a faded tank top and sweats, with his pale hair sticking out every which way. His face a mask of surprise at first, it quickly contorted into a scowl as he snapped, "The hell do you think you're doing? Get back to your room!"

Ignoring him as I tried to catch my breath, I panted, "The Beast at it again?"

He huffed, narrowing his eyes. "Don't call him that, he doesn't like it. You-" He stopped mid-sentence as he looked at me. Like, _really_ looked at me. Then he hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dude, you could have at least put some pants on."

I blinked, then looked down at myself.

Heh. Oopsie.

To be fair, I wasn't _completely_ naked. I know that's what you're thinking though. Sorry to disappoint. Get your minds out of the gutter, horndogs. No, I at least had the decency to have been sleeping in a pair of boxers. It was all I had on me, but it was better than nothing. They were black with flaming ninja stars printed across them. Because everything's cooler when it's on fire. Duh.

I smirked as I looked back up at Riku again, giving him a saucy little wink. "Don't act like you don't like it."

He pinned me with a death glare, then jabbed an index finger towards the set of doors I had just come barreling through. "Leave. Now."

"But I want to help!"

He snorted dryly. "I've seen the way you _help_ ," he used air quotes here. "No thanks. I'd prefer not to have this room burned to the ground."

"Jeeze, that was one time and it wasn't the whole room, it was just one rug!" I snapped. He gave me a dull stare. I scratched the back of my head, muttering, "Okay, and a coffee table." More staring. "...and maybe a couple of couches." One of his eyebrows arched. "Alright, fine, it was the whole damn room! But come on, man, you know what a powerhouse Beast is. You need me."

As if to emphasize my point, there was another howl, louder this time and punctuated by a crash that made the ground quiver under us while the doors on the opposite side of the room jerked and rattled. Unfazed, Riku shook his head. "No. You're a civilian and have no business here."

I rolled my eyes. "Listen to Johnny Fucking Law over here. Alright, officer, I'm gonna need you to stop polishing that imaginary little badge of yours for one second and just admit it. You need all the backup you can get."

"Goddamn it, will you just-"

"Let him help."

The new voice, though soft and calm, cut off Riku's words as efficiently as an X-Acto knife. We both snapped our heads around towards the owner. For the first time, I noticed Naminé was sitting on one of the large, plush sofas in the room, decked out in flannel pyjamas patterned with little gold, five-point stars. She held a pencil in hand that flew across the pages of the sketchpad settled on her lap. She did not acknowledge us. She did not even look up as another angry roar shook the walls, nor as the crashes and thumps drew nearer and more frequent. The girl didn't so much as flinch, just remained ever diligently focused on her work.

Artists, man. Their devotion to their craft can be _intense_.

Frowning - rather petulantly, might I add - Riku took a step towards her. "But Naminé, he can't just-"

"Let him help," she repeated, eyes still glued to the paper. There was a bit more force behind her words this time, but they were still somehow just as serene.

He opened his mouth in another attempt to argue. Only now did her gaze flick up as she shot him a look. And just like that, Riku shut his trap. Because his mama didn't raise no fool. He knew when he was beat.

That's Naminé for you. Cute but deadly. Tiny but fierce.

I grinned triumphantly and stuck my tongue out at Riku. Face pinching, he sighed and rubbed the nape of his neck. "Fine. You can…" he paused in thought, then snapped his fingers. "Go get one of the professors."

"What?!" My hands balled into fists. "Lame! No! I-"

And that, my friends, was the precise moment that all proverbial hell broke loose.

For that was the precise moment those doors across the way exploded off their hinges as two tons of muscle, fur, and pure frigging unbridled rage plowed into the room.

The Beast, as he's not-so-affectionately known as among the student body, is a living, breathing Tower of Terror, standing somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet in height. Hard to say the precise number. No one exactly wants to grab a yardstick and ask him to stand still long enough to let them measure. You tend to get that kind of reaction from people when you're some sort of animal. Or, to be more accurate, _all_ sorts of animals. The Beast is some crazy mishmash of creatures, a jigsaw where all the pieces don't quite fit together. There's a little bear in there, some gorilla, tail of a wolf, fangs of a lion, tusks of a boar… hell, he even has one massive, scary set of horns that would put Babe the Blue Ox to shame.

He tore across the common room like some grisly bullet train of the damned and straight towards Riku and me. The two of us leapt apart in opposite directions, just barely getting out of the way in time before he rammed into the wall behind us, all but smashing it to rubble. With a deep grunt, the Beast backed up and turned, claws scraping against the floor as he shook debris from his face. When he opened his eyes once more, it wasn't me they zeroed in on. Nor was it Riku.

It was Naminé.

Still just doodling away. As if she didn't have a single care in the world. As if a wrecking ball in giant hairy hellspawn form hadn't just set its sights on turning her into roadkill.

Crap.

Unleashing another deafening, blood curdling roar, the Beast charged towards her. Her blue eyes snapped up, locking onto him as a tiny frown settled onto her lips. She rose to her feet, swinging an arm out in front of her, the pages of the art book in hand rustling and flaring out like wings.

And from those pages, _birds_ flew out.

I shit you not.

Dozens of them. No, hundreds. A whole goddamn murder of crows burst forth from her sketchpad and launched themselves at the Beast. Their caws echoed around the room as their talons tore at his face and their beaks pecked at his eyes. With a surprised snarl, his paws scrambled and he blindly veered off course just enough for Naminé to casually side step out of his path of destruction.

I released a breath I had not realized I had been holding, hanging my head in relief.

The girl has always appeared so small and fragile. It can be easy to forget sometimes what an effing badass she really is.

The Beast was now spinning and twisting about, swinging wildly at his winged attackers. Every now and again, his claws would rip through a handful of the birds, leaving nothing but torn and tattered bits of paper fluttering down to the ground in their wake. As he turned to slice out another hole into the black, feathery cloud engulfing him, I realized for the first time that there was something clinging to his back.

Wait. No, scratch that. Some _one_. A rather familiar someone, in fact, with long and very distinctive blue hair, a jagged x-shaped scar across his face, and yellow eyes.

Eyes that were glowing as brightly as that big, full moon that was hanging low outside the windows.

Of all the prefects present, he was the one that made the most sense. True, the others were powerful in their own right and could take care of themselves. But one mistake, one slip up on their part and that was it. Lights out. Game over. One blow from the Beast that they were even half a second too slow to dodge and they'd go crunch like an empty can of Coca-Cola. Saïx, on the other hand, could not only take the hit, but he could give as good as he got. _Especially_ when going full on berserker mode, fueled by sheer moon-driven madness.

That was probably the reason why the Beast had taken his sweet time crashing our little party here in the common room. Saïx has been trying to wrastle the big brute into submission. Obviously, that plan failed and so it had been on to plan B: ambush.

While the Beast was distracted with tearing the last of the crows to shreds, Saïx reached out and grabbed hold of his horns. Then baring his teeth into a feral smirk, he yanked back hard and steered the Beast face first into the nearest wall with a booming crash. Cracks spiderwebbed their way out from the the point of impact as Saïx leapt off and landed on the ground, squatting low as he watched his opponent. The Beast emitted a rumbling huff as he pulled himself from the sizable dent and turned to Saïx, face twisting in animalistic rage as he let loose another earsplitting roar that whipped Saïx's hair back and made the whole room quake.

Yeah, that whole running-the-Beast-into-the-wall tactic? Big fat no-no. Only seemed to be pissing him off more.

In the blink of an eye, the Beast had pounced, but Saïx was ready for it. He dived out of the way, rolling and coming back up in a crouch, eyes gleaming eerily as they never left the monster. Quick to recover, the Beast lunged again. Saïx leapt straight up over him, stomping a foot down on his face and using it like a stepping stone to launch himself behind the behemoth.

This was some real live David versus the Goliath shit unfolding right here.

The Beast whirled around, a low growl resonating within his chest, his jaws wide, ready to bite down into Saïx's skull and rip it clean off his shoulders. With a derisive snort, Saïx threw his hand up to block and Mr. Not-So-Friendly-Giant sank his razor sharp teeth into the flesh of his arm with a sickening crunch. His sleeve stained a dark, blotchy red, but he didn't cry out or even wince. In fact, he chuckled.

That's right. Fucking _chuckled_.

Because if you haven't figured it out by now, Saïx was a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

With a sneer, his free hand curled into a tight fist. Then he struck. _Crack!_ Right square between the poor big lug's eyes. The Beast howled out in agony, releasing Saïx's arm. No time to celebrate small victories however. Not when the next second, a paw the size of bowling ball (and guesstimating twice as heavy) was smashing into Saïx's side. He was flung into a nearby grandfather clock that immediately exploded into kindling.

A blow like that would have knocked most people out cold, if not straight up snuffed their pathetic little life out. But Saïx? Dude coughed, then looked up, blood streaming down his face from a gash across his forehead.

And his lips twisted into a little smirk.

Again. Boy was a little cray.

Okay… _lotta_ cray.

"Now!" he shouted.

So you might be finding yourself asking, what's "now" exactly? Here's a hint. It had something to do with those shadows gathered around the Beast. And I don't mean that in a poetic literary sense. Shadows had _physically_ moved to surround the brute. And at Saïx's word, that gloom suddenly lit up with dozens of glowing amber eyes.

Can you say creepy?

"Okay!" Riku yelled next to me before gritting his teeth and thrusting his hands forward. "Go!"

With that, _they_ attacked. Little creatures of pure darkness with twitchy antennae and nasty claws. The Beast gave a shocked snarl as they leapt at him. He tried to fight them off, crushing one here, biting one clear in half there, but there were too many. They swarmed him to the ground and soon all you could see was a writhing mass of shadows dotted with empty, unblinking eyes.

"What are you still doing here?" a voice hissed beside me, making me jump. I looked at Riku, who was glaring at me out of the corner of his eyes. His hands were still raised towards the Beast as he concentrated, skin pallid and temple slick with sweat. It wasn't easy for him, keeping that leviathan floored. Controlling this many Shadows was taking its toll on him, and this was by no means a permanent solution.

My gaze drifted to his shadow - not one of his minions, but the real deal, the one actually cast by his body. It seemed to shift and twitch slightly, independent of him. And was it just my imagination, or did it also now have a set of faintly glowing eyes that seemed to be watching me hungrily?

"I, uh…"

Crap, what had I been about to say? Got a little distracted by the freaky shadow fiend eyeing me like I was some kind of Happy Meal.

Giving myself a shake to regain focus, I locked eyes with Riku again. "Put me in the ring, coach!" I demanded, slamming my fists together and igniting them like torches. "Just lemme at 'im! I'll K.O. that punk in two seconds flat! He'll never know what-"

"Enough, clown!" he barked, though it was half-hearted. There was a tremor to his hands now. He was already exhausted. "Do what I told you to do! Go get some member of the faculty or-"

Another enraged roar and the dogpile of Shadows exploded. The little guys went flying everywhere, forcing me to duck so as not to get beaned by one. Then I looked up to what little remained of their now ex-heap.

The Beast was free once more.

Or, at least he _was…_ for like a grand total of zero-point-four seconds.

Then a hand roughly the size of an SUV came rushing out of nowhere, slamming into him and pinning him against a wall with a loud _whump!_

... _you_ think that's weird? Shit, I _live_ here and even I was arching an eyebrow at that one.

Said colossal hand was attached to an equally massive arm that stretched across the room and straight out of that artbook held up within Naminé's grasp.

Don't ask me how something that big was getting through that tiny ass sketchpad. It just was, okay? Mutant juju ain't exactly a science. It follows its own rules.

The Beast growled, claws angrily digging into the massive fingers holding him in place. They ripped and frayed just like paper under his assault, but the hand as a whole held firm. Still, it wouldn't last. Not for long.

I huffed in frustration, rounding on Riku once more. "Come on! If you would pull your head out of your ass for one damn minute, you would see that-"

"Axel!" he yelled.

I shut up, narrowing my eyes at him. Then I looked to Naminé, whose full attention was going into keeping the enemy pinned. No help from that corner. Saïx was prepping to jump back into the fray when the Beast would inevitably break free again, so no help there either. Not that I had expected it. That bridge had been burned long ago.

With that conjured hand looking more and more like a battered and torn piñata by the second, it seemed I had little choice.

Curling my lip with a soft _tch_ , I snapped, "Fine!"

Fucking prefects.

Even as I turned to go, Riku was already summoning a fresh wave of shadowy canon fodder to throw at the Beast. I left all that madness behind, bursting through those doors once again and sprinting with all that I had down the hallway.

Everything was a blur around me as I ran. The walls, the doors, any students not hiding in their rooms, all of it. None of it was important. I had one thing on my mind.

Teachers.

Teachers, teachers, teachers… where the hell were all the teachers? Fuck if I knew. Having spent most of my time in this school _avoiding_ teachers like the plague, I didn't know the first thing about where to look for one. For fuck's sake, the Beast wasn't exactly being quiet at the moment. Bet you everyone could hear the racket he was making for miles. So unless every single last teacher on the grounds had gone abruptly and inexplicably deaf as a stone, they had to know already, they just had to. So why were they suddenly and mysteriously AWOL?

I pushed the question to the back of my mind and focused on the task at hand. Find a teacher. Any teacher. Maybe if I just kept charging around the campus blindly like a bat outta hell, I'd end up running smack dab into one.

As Lady Luck would have it, I took a corner a little too fast and almost did accidentally crash into someone from behind. It was no teacher, however.

"Snow?!"

At the sound of my voice, she spun around to face me with a sharp intake of breath. My feet scrambled as I struggled to avoid a head-on collision with the girl. I did, if only just. Then I hunched forward, hands propped on knees, catching my breath as I stared down at my bare feet and asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to find out what was causing all that noise. It sounds like someone's taking a wrecking ball to the building. What-"

"You need to get back to your room. It's not safe and-" I finally looked up at her.

She was wearing this cute little nightgown number in a powder blue. It looked silky, shimmering slightly even in the dim hallway. Instead of the braid that she usually wore her hair in, it was down and doing this sort of soft, smooth, wavy thing. The moonlight made it gleam like finely spun silver.

It… looked nice.

"What?" she asked suddenly, eyebrows shooting up her forehead.

I blinked and echoed, "What?"

"You… said something about my hair?"

...crap, I said that out _loud?_

Goddamnit, mouth. You're gonna get punched later. That's right. Pow, right in the kisser.

I was luckily saved from having to make any sort of response however as I watched her cheeks suddenly flare up like a couple of stoplights. She averted her gaze upward and raised a hand, blocking her line of sight to-

"Um," I cocked an eyebrow. "Are you… avoiding looking at my _boxers?_ "

"...no?"

She'd hesitated.

I crossed my arms, eyelids drooping. "How old are you? Twelve?"

A tiny scowl twisted her lips, her eyes still boring holes into the ceiling overhead. "Where do you think you are? A Macy's changing room?"

"Your comebacks suck."

"Your face sucks."

It was official. She was, in fact, twelve.

I snatched Snow's hand that she was still holding out as a makeshift censor bar, pulling it down as I used my other hand to flick her in her forehead. "Grow up, it's just underwear!"

She finally looked at me again, gaze narrowing as she opened her mouth. But whatever she was going to say died on her tongue as her eyes widened and all color drained from her face. I realized she was no longer looking at me, but past me.

That's when I heard it behind me. The _very_ deep, _very_ heavy breathing of a _very_ large creature.

It was then I realized that I had forgotten something extremely important.

Fun fact: the Beast isn't always just some gargantuan cartoon Tasmanian Devil throwing a noisy tantrum, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake. That's just a good ninety-nine percent of the time. The other one percent, he can actually be quite sneaky as he stalks his prey, not alerting them to his presence until it is too late.

Unfortunately for Snow and me, this exact moment fell under that one percent.

I slowly turned to come face to giant, furry, fanged face with Lord Angry-McFuzzy-Pants himself.

Fuck. Me.

Neither Snow nor I budged an inch. Because if there was ever a time that called for no sudden movements, this was it. I couldn't see her face, but I imagine it was a perfect mirror of my own look of abject terror. We just stood there, doing our best impressions of statues as we watched him watching us. The nostrils of his enormous snout flared angrily as his eyes flicked back and forth between us, possibly counting the thousand and one different ways he could slice and dice us into mince meat.

And then I had to go and do it. I had to open my big dumb mouth.

"Elsa," I said in a hushed, tiny voice, hesitantly raising a hand to gesture towards the Beast, "meet Adam. Adam," I swept my hand back towards Snow, "this is Elsa."

Because introductions are important, yo. And only proper etiquette. Duh.

Everything seemed to freeze. One second, the silence was almost deafening, as if time itself was holding its breath. The next, a cataclysmic roar erupted from the Beast's maw that had the very walls trembling and nearly knocked Snow and me off our feet. His paw blurred as he took a swipe at us that would have crushed every damn bone in our bodies. I ducked into a crouch, pulling Snow down with me, feeling the heavy _swish_ over our heads as his claws narrowly missed us. Then I sprang back up, Snow's hand still in mine as I yanked her along behind me, running as if our lives depended on it.

Since, ya know… it pretty much did.

"What was…" Snow puffed out between breaths as we raced down the corridor, glancing over her shoulder. "Is that… Is he a-"

"Superfreak?" I supplied, nodding and keeping my eyes straight ahead. "Yup. Just like you and me."

Adam - a.k.a the Beast - was one of many shapeshifters in attendance at our school. Bulldozer class. And no, I don't mean that in the way that he _actually_ turns into a bulldozer. I mean that in the way that you damn well better get out of his path if you don't want to be flattened like a pancake. Boy's got some serious anger management issues to work out, if you couldn't tell. That's what triggers his transformations into Beast mode. Poor guy has no control over it. Like me, he's one of Doc Aq's patients, tho I'm pretty sure he needs the help more than I do. Usually he's kept on prescribed happy pills so he stays his normal, harmless human self that won't hurt the other students. But every now and then, he gets it in his head that he's got it under control and stops taking his meds. That usually ends up going just about as well as it was going right at that second.

His incurable case of the Grumps was why he wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity around school. Everyone was too afraid of becoming his next meal if even just the tiniest thing set him off. Plus, the dude wasn't exactly a joy to be around even when he wasn't sporting fur and fangs. Guy was a total asshat.

I had to wonder as we ran how he had caught up to me. What about the prefects? Hopefully, they were okay and not nothing more than bloody smears decorating the walls now. But I couldn't worry about them at the moment. Nor could I worry about finding a teacher. Now I had a new mission: save the girl.

And, no, this wasn't some stupid macho bullshit. Thought you'd know me better than that by now. I was very well aware that Snow was perfectly capable in a fight, given our little midnight joyride adventure hardly a day ago. But a few street level, muggle born thugs were one thing. The Beast on the other hand? This wasn't about white knights and damsels in distress. This was just common sense. This was survival.

Her hand felt as cold as ice in mine. No, seriously. There was actually bits of ice beginning to form on my fingers and knuckles. Doubt the girl even knew she was doing it. She was more preoccupied with a lil ol' life threatening situation, ya know? I willed some heat down my arm and into my hand, melting the ice before it could spread too far, but otherwise paid it little mind.

The ground trembled beneath us. I could feel it even as my feet barely touched the ground, we were running so fast. It was from the impact of the Beast's paws as he charged after us. And it was getting stronger by the second. He was closing in on us. _Fast_.

Just as I could feel his hot breath tickling at our backs, I grit my teeth and took a abrupt sharp left down a new hallway and-

 _CRASH!_

Suddenly the Beast was no longer behind us.

I blinked.

I… actually hadn't expected that to do jack shit.

I chanced a look behind us and that's when I noticed it. The solid trail of ice being left in our wake. Looking down, I realized whenever Snow's feet hit the floor, frost crystallized and spread. It hadn't been enough to slow the brute down when we were running in a straight line, but apparently the big sucker couldn't make turns as quickly as us because of it. Instead he had slipped and hurtled into a wall, giving us some much needed breathing room.

Alright, Snow! You go, girl!

But the victory party would have to wait. The Beast had already recovered and was charging after us again. Dude was a freaking tank. But now I had an idea. An exit strategy. Just keep making turns, let the ice do its work and eventually we'd leave this loser in the dust. Zig and zag, that's all there was to it. And for a while, it worked too. We were making some headway, putting some distance between us and the big angry furball. But then it happened.

I zigged when apparently I should have zagged.

I zigged us right into a dead end.

Letting out a hiss through my clenched teeth, I skidded to a stop, Snow stumbling beside me. I glared at the tiny alcove before me. The only bit of decoration "brightening" the place up was a portrait taller than me of Headmaster Yen Fucking Sid himself, glaring those beady little eyes of his back down at me. And let me tell you, his wrinkly ol' mug was just about the very _last_ thing I wanted to see right now.

Okay, so maybe I don't know the campus layout like the back of my hand exactly, but I sure as hell knew my way around well enough not to get myself cornered in a goddamn dead end. This shouldn't have been here. Which meant only one thing.

The stupid school was punking me again.

"Seriously?!" I snapped, slamming my fist against a wall. "Is now really the time to be pulling this crap, you pathetic heap of crusty cement and moldy wood? I hope a whole army of termites eats you for breakfast, you-"

"Are you... yelling at the _building?_ "

I froze mid-tirade at Snow's question and turned awkwardly to face her. She had one eyebrow crooked as she blinked at me a couple times.

Heh. And the award for "Looking Batshit Crazy" goes to...

Right. Now wasn't the time for my little blood feud I had going on with the frigging Winchester Mystery House here. We had to make like a bread truck and haul buns. Shifting my grip on her hand, I turned to bolt out the way we had come.

Too late.

The Beast came charging round the corner, scrambling furiously to come to a halt as his claws slipped along the frost coated floor. The sight would have almost been funny, if it weren't for the fact that we were watching our impending doom on ice. Having steadied himself, his murderous eyes focused on us now as he huffed and puffed from the chase. He loomed before us, straightening up to his full height and filling the entire hall, leaving no room to escape past him.

Well, balls.

I pulled Snow behind me, placing myself between her and him as I threw my free hand out in front of me. Fire sparked to life and began to swirl around my forearm.

We weren't gonna go down without a fight.

But boy, we could really use a miracle right about now.

Thankfully, it really is true what they say: Ask, and ye shall receive. A miracle did arrive. And it arrived in the form of a chipmunk suddenly coming out of nowhere and barreling itself into the side of the Beast.

Okay, so it wasn't really a chipmunk. It was Sora. Your remember Sora, right? Goofball with the stupid hair and cheesy grin? Yah, that guy. He was such a shortie though, you could see where the mix up in perception came from, especially when he was standing right next to the mountain of fur and muscle that was the Beast. Well, not so much standing as football tackling.

Normally, a runt like Sora would have had no chance knocking over something of the Beast's magnitude. But maybe catching the big brute by surprise was just enough to tip the scales in his favor. Maybe the kid simply got lucky and hit him in just the right spot, like a pressure point or some crap. Maybe the stars and planets from up on high in the heavens aligned just so, allowing the phenomenon to occur. Whatever it was, Sora sent the Beast flying down the hall, hitting the floor hard several yards away.

Sora rolled and sprang back up to his feet, only struggling a tiny bit to maintain his balance on the ice. He then turned his gaze towards us, eyes darting back and forth between Snow and me. He pointed a finger down the hall in the opposite direction of the Beast. "Go! Get out of here! Fast!"

Yeah. Sure thing, buddy. I'll get right on that.

Not.

Already forgetting about us, the prefect returned his focus to the Beast, moving to close in on him. Heating my naked feet to melt the frost beneath me as I walked, I stepped out of the alcove just enough so I could watch the action unfold.

Man, where's the popcorn when you need it?

The Beast has pushed himself up off the ground once again and was now pacing slowly around on all fours, like a caged wild animal. He emitted a deep growl as Sora inched cautiously closer to him, hands held up in a placating gesture. "Easy there, big fellah. It's alright. It's okay," he soothed. As he spoke, Sora's whole form began to gently glow. He was trying to use his powers on the Beast. Give him the warm fuzzies so he'd calm his shit and Adam could come back. "No one wants to hurt you, and you don't want to hurt anyone, right? Just breathe, buddy. Breathe. Calm-"

Apparently the Beast wasn't exactly ready to start singing Kumbaya.

A snarl tore out from between those deadly set of teeth and he lunged at the kid. Sora's body seemed to act on its own, quickly dodge rolling out of the way. As he came back up onto his feet, a blinding flash shot out from his hand. It formed a blade of pure, golden light just in time for him to raise it up and catch the Beast's fangs, parrying the bite he had been trying to sink into the kid's shoulder.

The two glared at each other for a second, the Beast's chomper's still clenched around the gleaming weapon. There was a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt hair as thin wisps of smoke rose from the Beast's snout. The blade wasn't meant to be touched by anyone but Sora and burned like a mofo. Props to the furball for not giving a flying fuck.

"Alright, big fellah," Sora said, narrowing his eyes, "I tried to be nice, but you asked for it."

We're not even sure how much the Beast understands while he's going all shaggy Mr. Hyde on us. Adam never remembers much. But he didn't seem to take too kindly to Sora's words and I swear his roar could have ruptured ear drums. The instant his blade was free of those vicious pearly whites, the prefect ducked and rolled across the floor through the gap between the Beast's legs. Coming out behind him and springing back up to his feet, he arced his glorified glowstick around to slam it into the monster's thigh.

The leviathan bellowed in a mixture of pain and anger, whirling on Sora and lashing out with his claws. The prefect leapt back out of the way, narrowly missing getting straight up gored. Blocking a second slash from those lethal claws, he flipped his blade around underhand and swung it upward, smashing it into his opponent's jaw. Another agonized snarl.

It was clear Sora's attacks hurt. But they seemed to be doing nothing to slow the big guy down. If anything, it only seemed to be adding fuel to the fire. The big, fluffy rage machine fire.

And as the two of them continued to exchange blows, I once again found myself wondering…

Where all the teachers at, yo? Like, seriously. I was beginning to think they were a myth, like the Loch Ness Monster. Or Bigfoot. Or Shia LaBeouf.

Then it happened. Sora tripped up and let his guard down for a split second. The Beast zeroed in on the opening and lunged for the kill. But suddenly, a flaxen rope came flying out from the darkness behind the monster and whipped around his ankles. It pulled taut, yanking his paws out from under him and sending him crashing to the floor, millimeters short of ripping Sora limb from limb.

I squinted. No... not rope…

 _Hair_.

Yards of it. _Miles_ of it. Like the Energizer Bunny, it just kept going and going.

The Beast rose up once more, despite his feet still being entangled. He was in a blind fury, a mindless goon on a mission, raising his claws overhead in another attempt to lacerate Sora to bloody ribbons. But a second lock of blonde tresses shot out from the shadows, lassoing his wrist and jerking it back, away from his prey. Before he could even so much as twitch, a third tendril had whipped out, restraining his other hand.

The owner of the hair stepped forward, revealing herself to be none other than little Miss Doesn't-Know-The-Meaning-Of-The-Word-Haircut herself, Rapunzel. Surprise, surprise. She had fistfulls of her hair wrapped around her hands as she pulled back hard, struggling to keep the behemoth at bay.

"Down, Fluffy," she ground out through her teeth, giving another forceful tug. "Bad Fluffy! No biscuit for you!"

If Adam didn't like being called the Beast, I'm sure he'd be positively tickled about the nickname "Fluffy."

"Whew," Sora breathed, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand and stumbling slightly as his body relaxed. He beamed, "Thanks Punzie! Perfect timing!"

I whooped, "Alright! Go team! Way to kick butt!"

With a start, Sora spun around to face us again. "Wha- Why are you guys still here? I told you to run!"

I blinked and looked to my side, realizing for the first time that Snow had stayed to watch the show as well, peeking out from behind me. I also realized for the first time that our fingers were still laced together. She seemed to become aware of it at the same time as she suddenly gasped and yanked her hand free, clutching it to her chest.

Christ, when would the girl learn her powers wouldn't hurt me?

Shrugging it off, I scratched a spot behind my left ear as I looked at Sora again. "Riku said I could help."

He crossed his arms as he stared at me, eyelids drooped.

"What?" I shrugged. "It's true!"

Sorta.

He was about to say something to that, but then stopped as he looked me over. His head tipped to one side and his brow furrowed.

What was he…?

Then it clicked. I rolled my eyes and snapped, "Oh my god, all you babies act like you've never seen a pair of friggin' boxers before!"

Sora gave a snort, shaking his head. "Actually, I was just thinking I had the same pair."

I cocked an eyebrow at that. "Seriously?"

"Yup. Only mine are blue instead of black."

"Neato! Hey, boxer bros!" I held my fist out to him.

He grinned, bumping his knuckles against mine. "Yeah!"

Snow facepalmed.

"Not to spoil this Kodiak moment," Rapunzel grunted as the Beast thrashed about, dragging her with him by several inches as she dug in her heels, struggling to keep him restrained, "but Sora… lil help maybe?"

"On it!" he called, running towards the Beast before dropping down to slide beneath his slashing claws. Picking himself back up on the other side, he joined Rapunzel and grabbed onto her hair with her, adding his weight to holding the big guy back.

As for me, I took a step towards the Beast. That's as far as I got before I felt cold fingers on my arm. I turned to look at Snow, who retracted her hand quickly, wringing it in the other. Her worried eyes flicked from me to Big Ugly and back, before she whispered, "What are you doing?"

"Relax," I smirked, giving her a wink. "He's all bark, no bite now. Watch."

Looking at the Beast once more, I continued my approach, stopping about a foot away from him. He was still struggling against his silky smooth shackles, but his claws wouldn't budge even the barest inch closer to me. It was a good thing he seemed to have it out for me in particular at the moment. If he realized he could just whirl around and pounce on the prefects keeping him entangled, that'd be no bueno.

I grinned up at his snarling face. "Hey, Beast ol' Buddy," I cooed, waggling my fingers in greeting. "I'd shake your hand, but seems you're a lil… tied up at the moment."

His head snaked forward in a blur of motion, fangs snapping loudly at my fingers just as I hastily pulled them back.

"Are you insane?!" Snow hissed from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder at her, grin twitching wider. "Just a bit."

Then I heard it.

 _Snap_.

It was soft. Tiny really, barely even there. You almost wouldn't have noticed it at all.

 _Snap_.

But it was enough to make my poor heart all but splutter and putter out right then and there.

 _Snap_ , s _nap_.

Haltingly turning to look at the Beast once more, it was as I feared. Strand's of Rapunzel's sunny tresses were beginning to break under the strain. It was only a few so far, but the numbers were increasing at an alarming rate.

Note to self: Buy Goldilocks here some extra strength TRESemmé for brittle hair next Christmas.

Addendum: If I live that long.

Gulping, I took a step back, raising my hands submissively. "Dude. Big guy. Not cool. You're gonna cause some major split ends that way."

Not seeming to give a crap about proper hair care management, his muscles visibly bulged as he pulled harder against his restraints. It seemed he had found his second wind. His third and fourth too, by the looks of it. Whatever it was, he was seriously hulking out. Abruptly, he tore one arm free, clumps of honey locks still clinging to his wrist. An angry huff erupted from his nostrils before he raised those miniature machetes he called fingernails above his head, preparing to make confetti out of me.

And then there was ice.

A whole giant ass wall of the stuff, filling up the entire corridor in front of me, just a hair short of my nose. The psycho mega tribble had been blocked off on the other side.

I spun around to see Snow, hands outstretched in front of her, panting and with a slight tremble to her frame. Frost was slowly creeping and crackling its way out from beneath the soles of her feet, while bits of frozen white fluff floated down to the ground around her.

I reacquainted myself with this delightful little thing called breathing - it seemed I had forgotten how while my life had flashed before my eyes not two seconds before - then broke out into smile. "My hero."

She stared blankly at me for the space of a heartbeat. Then she looked down and shook her head, a quiet chuckle escaping from between her lips.

A booming _crack_ suddenly split the air, making us both jump. Looking back at the glacial barrier, a fracture had formed in it dead center and was slowly, jaggedly spiralling outward. A monstrous, distorted shape could be seen through the partially transparent wall of ice. There was a pause, then it rushed at the wall again with another thunderous _crack!_

The goddamn wookie on steroids was trying to ram his way through.

"No!" Snow pushed past me, mist and snowflakes dancing around her hands as she slammed her palms against the cool surface. Immediately the temperature dropped by several degrees and I could see my breath fogging the air in tiny puffs. The fissures in the ice began to seal and the wall seemed to expand. She was trying to strengthen it against the assault.

The hallway and ice quaked as the Beast collided hard with the makeshift roadblock once again. It bulged and more deep cracks erupted across its surface. Still Snow fought to keep the shield intact, but the fissures were forming faster than she could repair them.

Then, with one sudden final slam, the whole thing burst into thousands of tiny glistening shards that rained down on her as the Beast came flying through.

Snow stood there, frozen, mouth hanging agape and staring up at him like a deer caught in the headlights. I didn't blame her either.

She thought herself a monster. And maybe she was - who's to say? But it had to be utterly terrifying, realizing that you're not the scariest monster out there to go bump in the night.

Alright. It was now time to do the thing.

The knight in shining armor thing.

I dove at Snow, knocking her down just in time, feeling the _whoosh_ as the Beast flew over and past us. We hit the ground hard and I grunted on impact.

Sugary sweet candy canes swirling in creamy hot cocoa with a faint tang of vanilla. That was it. The scent that flitted across my senses suddenly, subtle and teasing, mingled with something else. What exactly, I wasn't sure, but whatever it was, the smell of it just made me want to bury my face in it and start purring like a freaking kitten. As she shifted about beneath me, I realized the scent belonged to her. Snow.

She rolled onto her back, wincing as she recovered from the fall, before opening those baby blues to blink up at me. I grinned awkwardly back down at her, chuckling weakly. And I swear, my voice cracked. Liked a goddamn blotchy faced preteen talking to a crush for the first time.

"Axel!"

Rapunzel's voice. I looked up, seeing her down the hall, hair coiling and whipping around her, ready to lash out. Beside her, Sora threw his hand out to one side, his blade of light rematerializing within his palm once more before he charged towards me. I looked over my shoulder towards the opposite end of the corridor, seeing the Beast had flipped a u-ey and was bull rushing back in our direction.

Oh. Right. So _not_ the time.

With the big guy closing in quick, I propped myself up on my elbows and twisted around, thrusting my hand up. Molten flames exploded from my palm, crackling gleefully as they ignited the air and engulfed the Beast. He lit up like a disco on Saturday night, and the resulting roar shook the school's very foundations.

I watched the raging inferno with a grimace. Nothing against Adam. Guy wasn't _all_ bad. He could have his moments… one of which was most certainly _not_ when he was trying to make me go splat like a bug on a windshield. But it was him or me, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be m-

The Beast abruptly came hurtling out of that fire, sailing through the air, claws gleaming savagely and aimed right at my sorry hide. His fur was singed and smoking a bit, but other than that he seemed fine.

Huh. So apparently the monster fuzzball was flame retardant.

Add that to the night's ever growing list of things that were one hundred and ten percent bullshit.

Sora was swiftly closing the distance, with Rapunzel not too far behind. Unfortunately for Snow and me, the Beast was closer and about a bajillion times faster. It wasn't hard to do the math. So I just squeezed my eyes shut, held my breath, bypassed the first four stages of grief and skipped straight on to acceptance.

I, Axel Moyasu (hereinafter referred to as His Grace and Majesty, Grand High God King of Fire and Badassery), being of sound state and mind, do hereby bequeath all my worldly holdings to one Roxas Anbruch and one Xion Atigi (hereinafter referred to as Thing One and Thing Two, respectively).

To Thing One, I leave my collection of WINNER ice cream sticks, seven (7) in summation. May they serve you well, little dude.

To Thing Two, I leave what fortunes I've accumulated in my brief albeit glorious existence, net worth seventy-eight (78) munny. Wait… crap, I bought that ice cream bar at lunch the other day. Make that seventy-three munny. Sorry, kiddo.

Correction, Thing One, you get eight WINNER sticks.

Lastly, my most valuable possession, my pride and joy, my pair of firetruck red Converse All Star high tops, I leave to… no one. Fuck that, they're mine. Bury them with me. In fact, bury Thing One and Thing Two with me as well. I'm taking them with me to the next life.

…this bequeathing business seemed to be going on for a while. The Beast was taking longer than expected to punch my ticket. Honestly, I thought I would have been meeting my maker by now. Slowly, I eased one eye open to see just what exactly the hold up was.

The Beast was still airborne, barely inches above me. But he now had absolutely _zero_ momentum. He was just kind of… floating there. In midair. Like a balloon. A supremely ticked, jumbo, hairy balloon.

I squinted up at him with a frown.

...what, pray tell, the fuck?

We made eye contact and his chest once again started rumbling with another low growl, but it was cut short by a new voice shouting, " _Enough!_ "

The voice was small but powerful, slicing through all other sound and leaving dead silence in its wake. It had come from behind the brute and I leaned to one side to look past him, seeing that it belonged to none other than…

Shit, it was Belle! Batty, nutso, looney toons ol' _Belle_. Only she looked scarier than the Ninth Circle of Hell, her face twisted into a harrowing scowl, her brown hair loose and flying wildly all over the place, and her eyes friggin' ablaze with this ethereal white light. It was then I put two and two together. _She_ was the one that had disconnected the Beast from gravity. She was _levitating_ him.

Yeah, that made way more sense than the wookie spontaneously developing the power of flight. Who would be dumb enough to get such a silly idea in their head? Certainly not me. Nope.

Lips set into a grim line, she raised a hand and with a flick of her wrist, spun the Beast around to face her. A small grumbling noise of confusion escaped him as he was tipped forward and down to her eye level, all while still kept harmlessly aloft. She took a step forward, stalking slowly towards him. Eyes now locking on her, he began to snarl, but again was silenced as she jabbed a finger into his nose and snapped, "Shush!"

That's right. The girl freaking _shushed_ him.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" she told him, her tone dangerously soft. "You're nothing but a big bully! Haven't you ever heard of picking on somebody your own size? And since no one here even comes close, don't do it! Period!"

It was actually kind of funny. Watching this wee mouse of a brunette in a yellow, oversized fleece nightshirt and matching wool socks, one hand curled into a fist planted against her hip as the other hand wagged a stern finger, scolding this nightmarish creature that had to be at _least_ three times her size as if he were some child that had been caught red handed stealing from the cookie jar.

And the craziest part? The Beast was just sitting there (well, floating rather, I guess), taking his lumps and looking thoroughly chastised. The scene had seemed to shock everyone else into a standstill. Snow just watched wide eyed and unblinking from the floor, while Sora and Rapunzel had skidded to a stop beside us, utterly dumbfounded.

Belle fell silent and took a moment to let her words sink in as she glared at the Beast. Then she released a heavy sigh and her expression softened. She reached a hand out and, seemingly unconcerned about the all too real possibility of losing said hand, rested it against his cheek to gently pet the fur there. And he let her, only flinching slightly in response.

When she spoke again, her words were a soothing murmur. "I know you've had it hard, Adam. I do, I really do. But you're hurting people. You don't want to do that, right? You're going to have to be strong. You're going to have to stop going off your medication, understand? Can you do that for me?" He hesitated for a beat before leaning his massive head into her palm, like a ginormous puppy. A small smile ghosted over her lips. "Good. Now, you must be tired after all that. Rest, Adam. Go to sleep. Things will be better in the morning, okay?"

There was a long pause that seemed to go to infinity and beyond. But then, finally, the Beast hung his head and, just like that, he slowly but surely began to shrink. The fur receded, the fangs and claws vanished, and the body began to take on a more normal, human shape.

There were no powers involved that were forcing the change. Just some good ol' fashion tough love and a firm but reassuring voice. As simple as that. Who'd of thunk?

Soon the Beast was gone altogether, replaced with a teenage boy. He had Fabio good looks, what with the flowing blonde hair, lean rippling muscles and chiseled features. He was the picture of exhaustion. Guess going on a rampage and decimating the campus could really take it out of you, go figure. His blue eyes drooped wearily as he mumbled, "I… I just… wanted to feel… something…"

Belle hushed him with a light "shh" as she took a seat on the ground, tucking her feet beneath her. With a wave of her hand, Adam gradually began to sink to the floor as well, his head coming to rest in her lap. The otherworldly light faded from Belle's eyes and her hair fell to frame her face as she delicately stroked her fingers through the golden strands of his mane. At last, his heavy eyelids closed and sleep claimed him.

And then it happened. The unthinkable. The unimaginable. The impossible. Finally, after everything was said and done. Finally, after all the dust had settled and cleared. Finally, _finally_ …

...a teacher showed up.

I half expected Nessie to make an appearance right then and there too.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Eek, already at the last of the chapters I had ready to post, it all went by so fast ;_; My heart, it breaks! But it was so much fun!_

 _Once again, MUCH praise and MUCH worship to the marvelous and magnificent **Arisa Kiryuu** for being a superb beta for this chapter! Thank you, my wee rutabaga! Also, special thanks to **NatsuRay** (aka **Arisa Kiryuu** ), **Spiderfan626** , **SoraKairiRikuNamine** , and **Mr. Spinner** for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! *bow, scrapes, worships* I am not worthy!_

 _Hoped you all liked the Loners! Alice is the one I struggled the most with, but am also quite happy with the result! Went a lil darker with her - I think I drew from a mix of Disney, Lewis Carroll, and American McGee for her xD I have something quite fun for her in mind... but you won't get to see it for a while, sorry!_

 _Holy shiiiiiiit, this whole scene was insanity xD I loved writing it and giving everyone their 15 seconds in the spotlight to be badass. Also looOooOooOoved writing Axel's commentary on it all xD Hope you all liked it as much as I enjoyed conjuring it up! Oh and just like with Atigi, there's a story behind Rox's last name Anbruch too, for anyone who wants to waste some time digging and translating and trying to puzzle out the crazy inner workings for my mind xD Still, Atigi is my MASTERPIECE.  
_

 _And that's it for this round of updates for Svarog Dx My brain is already churning up the next chapter, BUT I must make my rounds to my other stories also desperately waiting for updates. Split Ends is up next, I left that one on kind of a cliffie, so bet some of you are happy to hear that xD_

 _Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments, friendly feedback, or are just liking the story thus far, please make my day by letting me know in a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, so long and thanks for all the fish!  
_


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